2022年9-12月

雅思口语素材
Part 2&3-新题

（完整版）
目录
1. 时尚人士
2. 侍花弄果之人
3. 认识的不同文化的人
4. 发小
5. 激励你做有趣事情的人
6. 户外活动
7. 争论
8. 糟糕购物
9. 印象深刻的英语课
10. 信息搜索
11. 失约
12. 决意等待
13. 塑料废品
14. 收钱
15. 克服困难终成功
16. 宜居之地
17. 常去的熟人之家
18. 运动场所
19. 向游客推荐本国旅游地
20. 喜欢的节目
21. 让你自豪的照片
22. 漂亮物品
23. 分享
24. 喜欢看的电影
25. 有趣小说/故事
26. 学到的重要事情
1. 时尚人士

A person who likes to dress fashionably/well

You should say:

Who he/she is
What job he/she does
What kind of clothes he/she wears And explain why he/she likes fashion

This is an easy one for me, because a person I know very well is very interested in
fashion and that would be my girlfriend. She is a piano teacher. Her major was music
and now she's teaching piano while I do my postgraduate studies. Her work involves
sitting down with students, private students in their homes or in her studio. That's the
first part of the answer. In order to present herself as well as possible to study clients
who are paying good money for her time and who need to sit close to her. She
presents herself in the best possible way as regards, clothing, grooming, fragrance and
so forth. That's one very important part about the job and the clothing and the way
they fit together. “The kinds of clothes she wears.” That's interesting. Because she's only
young and she wants to be young and professional at the same time. She discovered
that there’s one particular clothing brand. It’s an American clothing brand. It has a lot of
garments (服装) that suit her body size and shape. She's quite petite. She's a very kind
of small dress size. Some companies simply do not specialize in small dress sizes, but
this one American company has small size, high fashion that suits her really well. She
manages to combine this look of professionalism with youthful fashion and it works
very well indeed for her.

中文思路:

我女朋友是一个对时尚很感兴趣的人。她是一名钢琴老师，由于工作性质她每天都要
打扮得十分得体， 她想要在保持专业性着装的同时尽可能通过搭配凸显年轻活力。她
是个娇小的女生，她找到了一个满 足她所有需求的美国服饰品牌，那个牌子的服饰非
常适合她。

Do you think online shopping will replace in store shopping in the future, and
why?

If you ask me this question a couple of years ago, as recently as a couple of years ago,
even before the pandemic, I would have said “No, online shopping is handy, it’s
convenient, it’s fashionable, it's cool, but it will never replace the good old-fashioned
bricks and mortar (房屋) store. But since the covid especially, the increase in online
shopping is just shot up and I can see just from the logistics people, the workers in the
street, that the proportion of people doing their shopping online is climbing steadily
and it’s something that I could never foresee taking off. Online purchasing of perishable
(容易腐坏的) foods like vegetables, for example, that too is really taking off and
happening more and more. I was a skeptic (持怀疑态度的人), but I think that now is
becoming apparent that pretty much online shopping can cover all eventualities (不测
事 件) and the convenience factor of not having to get out of your home and commute
to a fixed shopping center. It's very, very tempting for a lot of people. However, I just
want to say one thing. The only problem with that is online lack of customer service.
Some of the most recent items I bought, like an Apple Watch, and also before that, the
Apple iPhone both had delivery problems, which necessitated (迫使) me to contact the
customer service department. And that turned into a very frustrating and difficult
process. So what I want to say here is online shopping is all very well. It's booming, it’s
advantageous in so many ways, but where it seriously lacks is customer service,
something that's disappearing. So until they solve that problem, it will not be ideal.

Why is fashion very important to some people?

Because of the human propensity for making instant judgments. Don't they say, it takes
a couple of seconds to make a lasting impression on someone. Now, the first thing, the
first input, the first information a stranger will have of you, will most likely not be your
words, your speech, even though it is your speech, which is the clearest indicator of
who you are, your personality and your education. Language most shows a man as an
ancient poet wants wrote. However, clothing, especially in our materialistic (物质享乐主
义的) and visually oriented world. Remember this, everybody has their camera ready in
the mobile phone to place a Tic-toc ad. We depend very heavily on visuals in social
media, in advertising. The whole point about fashion is a visual thing. People judge
each other visually because it's the first information that they have. So, first impressions
are lasting impressions. People want to show themselves at their best to make the best
first impression.

Are women more fashion conscious than men?

In this day and age, it's very difficult and quite dangerous to make these very arbitrary
(专横的), black and white statements about. Men are this, and women are that. People
are people, and there are men with feminine characteristics and living with masculine
(阳刚的) characteristics. So, it's very difficult to say that women or men are more of this
or more of that. But let's go back into history and see what influential factors we can
find here. If we look into some other cultures, we can see that women occupy a
secondary role in society, even still in this day and age. Moreover, in many cultures,
women have been viewed as possessions (所有物) of men through history. Of course,
we recoil (回应) in horror from this concept now, but there is no question that in history,
this was the case. And part of this role that women used to occupy as the objects
owned by men involves making themselves as appealing and attractive as possible. Yes,
it sounds very crude to our modern ears, but you don't need to travel very far in the
world to find this phenomenon still in existence where women are objects of desire and
their survival really depends upon protection of men. And so, therefore, culturally,
historically, it was women's role to adorn (装扮) themselves. That's why women wear
makeup and jewelry is primarily connected with women, because they had to adorn
themselves, to decorate themselves in order to justify the attentions of the men who
controlled the world and the environment, etcetera. Again, this is dated thinking, it’s old
fashioned, but it plays into human psychology and helps to explain why women might
be more concerned with their appearance than some men are.

2、侍花弄果之人

A person you know who loves to grow plants (e.g. vegetables/fruits/flowers

etc.)

You should say:

Who this person is
What he/she grows
Where he/she grows them
And explain why he/she enjoys growing plants

I would like to talk about my friend's mother who is very fond of growing vegetables
and fruits and flowers and all kinds of things around their small apartment. Now, we're
in the middle of the city, and it's very, very hard to get your hands on a plot of land to
grow vegetables or produce of any kind. But this lady, my friend's mom, she has large
pots around the place on the balcony, in the kitchen, where she plants things. Not only
does she use these big pots of planting things. She also throws old food in there, so
that the soil can get very rich and grow better vegetables and flowers et cetera. And she
grows absolutely everything in there. She grows tomatoes, putting them in the
sunshine. She grows beans, letting them follow strings all around the windows and up
the walls. She grows goods of various kinds, melons, and watermelons, and pumpkins.
Again, you're lying on top of boxes of earth or on top of pots of earth. She grows
flowers. She has these long wooden boxes, which she plants with bulbs and seeds, and
all the year round there’s colorful springs of bloom. Hanging from her window ledges,
you might think you're in somewhere like Austria or Switzerland with all the window
boxes of flowers and vegetables. Why does she do this? Because she feels it's organic.
She feels she's making a contribution to the food supply. She feels that it's natural to
want to create your own foods. Just like our ancestors did for millions of years. She feels
there's something organic about that and I really tend to agree with her.

中文思路: 我朋友的妈妈非常喜欢种植蔬菜、水果和鲜花。由于我们在市中心里很难找
到适合种植的土地，她就 在家里的阳台上，厨房里用花盆种满了各种各样的作物，有
西红柿、大豆、西瓜、南瓜等蔬果，窗台 上也种满了一盒盒的鲜花。她这么做是因为
觉得这是一种有机的生活。

Do many people grow their own vegetables now?

It depends where you are. If we are talking about China, I would say fewer people grow
their own vegetables now. If we think about it, not just a generation ago, the majority of
people, the majority of the population were in rural or semi-rural environments. And
tending the gardens was a daily activity. But then we've seen during the reform and
opening up the economy, a massive migration of people from the countryside to the
cities, where, by definition, land is a premium, there's no spare ground to be growing
food. Very few homes have gardens of their own. So I would say that in general in
China anyway, fewer people are growing their own vegetables now and are depending
on shops and businesses and supply chains even delivery, which is a remarkable change
from the traditional lifestyle of our country.

What do you think of farming as a job?

Well, that depends. In China, if we talk about a farmer, that could be anything, but most
likely a poor person. Speaking frankly, a poor person who is still based in the
countryside and is still digging a small acreage, not even an acreage, a small area, a
garden for subsistence (维持生计) and survival. Now that's not much of a job and I
don't think very much of that. However, there are farmers who are very wealthy. Not so
much in China, but in western countries. I understand that there are farmers who are
extremely wealthy. They own enormous areas of land, which are farmed by massive
machines. And even the land itself is worth a fortune, not to mention the produce that
they create from it. There are different kinds of farmers. I'd like to be that kind of
farmer, the one with a million acres, not the poor gentleman digging in his own back
garden.

What are the differences between traditional and modern agriculture?

Absolutely. This goes back to what we've been saying that the traditional farmer is, as I
described, the small individual with a cottage and a row of rice plants or whatever, this
is the survival. Everything that person gets to eat comes from that garden. The chicken,
it has to be killed. The egg, come from the garden. This is much more traditional
agriculture. There's a continuum (连续统一体) scale so that some landlords would for
whatever reason have control over larger areas and employ people like the one I just
described to do the work for them, but that's traditional agriculture using human
strength and horses, perhaps, or water buffalo or other animals, low technology, high
manual labor. That is traditional market, traditional agriculture. On the other hand, as I
mentioned, some in America, Europe, Canada, South America, millionaires who own
enormous tracts (广阔的地面) of land, which they farm with massive machines, high
technology, irrigated vast areas, running ranks of harvests across them, just massive
industrialized farming. That is modern agriculture, very, very different.

3、认识的不同文化的人

A person you know who is from a different culture

You should say:

Who he/she is
Where he/she is from
How you knew him/her
And explain how you feel about him/her

I would like to talk about my friend Fizeau. This is a man I met in London when I was on
the English language course that I attended there. He comes from the Island of Bahrain
(巴林岛), which is a small independent state in the Arabian Gulf (阿拉伯湾) or the
Persian Gulf (波斯湾). It has two different names, but it's just the island of Bahrain, it's
just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It's quite a small island, I think. Fizeau told me it's only
about 30 miles long. What was that about? 50 kilometers by 20 kilometers, something
like this in size. But there's about 1 million people living there. It seems like it's very
crowded. We were studying together in London, which is also a very crowded place.
Because Fizeau is from the Arabian culture, Arabic speaking. We spend some time
around Edgeware Road where there are lots of nice Arabian restaurants and cafes and
Shisha bars and this kind of thing. It was a very good, fortuitous (幸运的) meeting. We
had a lot in common, even though I'm from China and he's from Bahrain. We were
both in London for the same reasons with the same age. We share certain another
interests. And we decided to keep in touch, which is very easy to do now through social
media. So, it's nice to stay in touch with Fizeau to learn about his life and to hear what's
going on with him, just one of the positive aspects of globalization, I would say.

中文思路:
我在伦敦上英语课的时候认识了一个来自巴林岛的朋友 Fizeau.虽然我们拥有不同的文
化背景，但我 们有着共同爱好，也会经常一起出去闲逛。得益于全球化的发展，我们
直到现在都有通过社交媒体保 持联系。

How can we get to know people of different cultures better?

University is arguably the best place and especially here in China, the Chinese
government has been showing strong support to many nations in the developing
world. They've been coming, the scholars and students are being invited from many
nations to come to China and study. Therefore, I feel very fortunate because I live and I
study in Nanjing and Nanjing is one of the finest places to get to know people of
different cultures in the world, let alone (更不必说) in China. Because we have at least
30 odd senior level universities around the place. I've never met people from places like
Bolivia or Honduras (洪都拉斯) before, people from Mauritius before, people from the
most remote locations, Lithuania, for example. But here in Nanjing, you can meet those
people. It's remarkable. And so, I think actually, my answer is really, very unambiguous
(清楚的) on this particular question, without doubt. I would say the postgraduate for
faculties, but also undergraduate here too, but of the Nanjing universities and I'm sure
the same goes for Beijing and Shanghai. That is the best place in my experience to get
to know people of different cultures better.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity?

This is a very profound (深刻的) question. It comes back to the fundamental question of
good and evil. Is mankind fundamentally good? Or is mankind fundamentally evil? The
advantages of cultural diversity in a benign (温和的), altruistic (利他主义的) world is that
everybody can be happy together. Everybody can exist in harmony, because we accept
the differences among us as a wealth, a treasure without the boring monotony (千篇一
律) of conformity (随大流). It's wonderful in a benign world to share our cultural wealth
with each other. But unfortunately, if the world is not benign, if mankind is not
intrinsically good, but intrinsically evil, cultural diversity goes the same way as
globalization. Some rich people in one country, make or let poor people in another
country do the work very cheaply, so that the rich people in the other country can sell it
for a very big profit and then carry on doing that. So that the people in the very rich
country get more and more rich. The people in the poor country just stayed right where
they are working hard, 9-9-6. This is the disadvantage of cultural diversity for the
majority of the people. It's good, it's good for the people that rich minority who are
getting all the money. But unfortunately, that's like 1 % and the other 99 % are just
working hard and making no progress. So that is the disadvantage of cultural diversity.

How can traditional Chinese culture and foreign cultures coexist?

Well, that depends on the circumstances. If we look at official policy in China now. The
goal of the “One Belt One Road” initiative is that the nations of Asia, especially and
those of Europe, too, can coexist peacefully on the basis of mutual benefit. In other
words, through trade, which has always been traditional Chinese culture. The idea all
the way back to the great fleets of the Ming dynasty. The idea was that China benefits
as others benefit through trade. And this is how traditional culture and other cultures
can coexist. But they can't coexist if the other cultures are being presented as some kind
of alternative or replacement, some kind of refutation (反驳), disapproving of whatever
traditional culture exists. If there's this kind of arrangement where the foreign culture is
basically hostile(抱有敌意的), seeking alternative or whatever, seeking to replace
traditional culture. Obviously, then the goal is not to coexist. That must be prevented at
all costs, because the soul of the nation is its traditional culture, and it's been preserved
for 5,000 years. It's going to be preserved for 5,000 years more and I think no matter
what outside observers may think, it's very, very difficult to uproot(根除) traditional
culture as deep as the Chinese one. So, I think in order to coexist eventually, other
cultures will recognize that the Chinese model of peaceful, mutual benefit is the best
way to coexistence.

4、发小

A friend from your childhood

You should say:

Who he/she is
Where and how you met each other What you often did together
And explain what made you like him/her

It's quite interesting in fact. Fairly recently, just a few years ago, I reconnected with my
very first friend in life. This was a little boy I met when I was 5 years' old and he was only
three. We lived in the same compound (大院) in the same town. That's where we met,
the earliest you can possibly meet a friend thing clearly, and we did. We met and then
we stayed friends until we were teenagers. That's when our lives took different
directions. Eddie actually joined the army and I then decided to go to universities. So
that's how we lost touch. But what we used to do together in around the xiaoqu, you
would have all kinds of adventures. I had a cat and we used to play with that. We built a
little cart with the old wheels and bits of wood. We used to ride around the compound
and sometimes outside the compound, in some kind of gardens around and areas
whereas people farming in this kind of thing. We used to ride a wooden cart out there
and play football, of course, played a lot of football. We used to build the camps, sort of
wooden, usually wooden structures or cardboard structures where we could hide out.
Sometimes we have even gang wars against the other kids in the compound, nothing
serious just as playing. So that was my early childhood friendship story and it was really
great. About 5 years ago when Eddie and I got back in touch. He quitted the army and
he was working in technology and I've graduated now, we're back in touch. It's a
wonderful thing.

中文思路: 最近我跟我人生第一个朋友重新联系上了，我们是小时后在大院里认识的。
我们经常一起玩耍，十分 开心。但长大后我们走上了不同的道路，他参军我上大学，
我们就失去了联系。 直到 5 年前他退伍 了，我们才重新联系上，这对于我来说是一
件很棒的事情。

Do you still keep in touch with your friends from childhood?

Eddie is the earliest friend that I have. Then I have a group of friends from high school.
It's still technically childhood, I keep in touch with them. And then it seems that as was
time went on, university was a very good time for making friendships because I'm still in
touch with a lot of the guys I was at university with.

How important is childhood friendship?

I think it's really important. I think it's an unfortunate fact that there may be some
people in this world who never really discovered true friendship. I know it sounds kind
of a controversial (有争议的) thing to say, but I'm coming to that conclusion. Because
when I look around me and people who consider themselves to be friends with others,
what they call friendship is so superficial (浅薄的) and transient (转瞬即逝的) and
unreliable and disloyal. So, I think a lot of people unfortunately go through life without
ever really experiencing true friendship. I think the childhood friendship is important,
because the idea that you can tolerate another human being, that you can remain in
communication in positive communication, that you can find common cause common
interest with another human being for a sustained (持久的) period of time. It's a
requirement of being a decent (待人宽厚的) human being that you can do that. If you
don't learn friendship, how can you learn to be a good human being? If you can't be
concerned about people are concerned about, you can't exchange mutual care and
concern to some level with others. Then what is the point? I think it's a fundamental
requirement really for character development.

Are lifelong friendships possible?

Yes. Absolutely. The fact is that I'm still in touch with the guy I've known since he was 3
years old, and I have other friends and family who...I mean my uncle's friendships, some
of my uncles have got friendships which have lasted for decades. I think it's about
values, isn't it? I think some families value that kind of thing and some communities
value that and some communities are more sympathetic (有同情心的) and to
intrinsically (内在地) more sympathetic towards socializing and maintaining
relationships than others. But anyway, apart from that, certainly in my experience in my
community, lifelong friendships are possible and I believe in them. I think it's one of the
wonderful things about the human condition. Further, we do care for each other. We
can demonstrate care for the duration of a lifetime, a wonderful thing.
5、激励你做有趣事情的人

A person who inspired you to do something interesting

You should say:

Who he/she is
How you knew him/her
What interesting thing you did
And explain how he/she inspired you to do something interesting

I'd like to talk about one of my classmates actually. We became friends very early on in
the first year at Nanjing University. I think we looked at each other and we saw the
same sort of person in each other. We were both interested in sports, we both playing
soccer and we attended the gym regularly. We like the same kind of things and became
good friends. The thing about my friend was he's very, very adventurous (勇于冒 险的)
and always wanting to test himself, to test his body and to test his strength. There was a
time when they were building an extension to the campus. There was a very tall crane
(起重机) there. My friend climbed to the top of it. We were all shocked and appalled (使
大为震惊). Nobody had the courage to do something like that. He was that kind of guy.
He used to go mountain climbing. He used to go to the indoor climbing facilities and
practices skills. And he said, "Look, why don't we go to Huangshan? Because it's not so
far from Nanjing and you can all enjoy the sensation (感觉) of mountain climbing. We
can do that together". In a safe way, we won't need ropes, there won't be any danger,
but we can all climb up into the clouds together and experience the joy of mountain
climbing together. And that's what we did. The group has got together, we went down
to Huangshan and climbed up to the top and camped at the top and watch the sun
come up over the clouds. This is all thanks to our good friend, the climber who inspired
us all to do this. We're very grateful to him for that.

中文思路: 我在大一刚开学的时候认识了一个好朋友，他是一个勇于冒险的人，永远都
想测试并突破自己的极限。 他徒手爬过校园里建楼用的吊车，我们都震惊了。他还鼓
舞大家，组织大家去爬山露营看日出，对于 我们来说是一段很美好的回忆，要是没有
他我们肯定不会做这种事情。

What qualities make a role model?

Let's break down the meanings of the words. The role is the act that you have to play,
the thing you have to do, the role you have to play, the thing you have to become. The
model is the example. A role model then, is an example of the thing that you have to
become. Now, the qualities that make a role model are the desirability (欲求) of the
qualities. In other words, do you want to become a good person? You need a good
person as a role model. Do you want to become a strong person? You need a strong
person as a role model. The qualities needed depend upon the role that has to be
played. But in each case, the model has to be an outstanding example of what that
person or that kind of person or that skill set should be. The role model must be a good
example of the desired qualities.

Do teachers inspire their pupils or students?

They should and some do. But then again, others don't. It's a truism (不言而喻的道理)
that there are many people working as teachers who had only doing so for the job and
the salary, not because they like children, not because they care for their pupils or their
students. Unfortunately, those people exist, they do not inspire. When I look back at
my own school education, it's quite clear, especially in hindsight (事后聪明), which
teachers were interested in their work and were therefore inspiring teachers, which
teachers were not interested in their work, and therefore uninspiring teachers. And in
fact, my own grades reflected that fact. That was my mistake. I should have
compensated for the uninspiring teachers by harder work on my own. But you know I
was younger then, and the fact is that my academic performance was very much
influenced by the degree of inspiration that the teachers were able to provide. Half of
them made the grade, and half of them fail, I would say.

Do parents inspire their children?

The answer is certainly yes, although that inspiration may depend. Criminal parents
inspire their children to be criminals. Drug addicted parents inspire their children to be
drug addicts. Alcoholic parents inspire their children to be alcoholics. If we can use the
word "inspire" in such a negative context or in such a series of negative contexts,
because that is what happens. Children take their example from their parents, just like
the rest of us try to take our example from our role models. Parents are the first role
models. So, if the father is a chained smoking alcoholic, that is the example that a child
is shown of what a parent, of what a father should be. So definitely, parents inspire their
children for good or bad. What we can hope for is that parents have the wisdom and
the care and the responsibility to inspire their children for good.

6、户外活动

An outdoor activity you did in a new place recently

You should say:

What the activity is
Who invited you to participate in it
Whether you asked for help in the activity
And explain what change you had in the activity

Actually, I have started a new outdoor activity recently, and that is a 5-mile or 8-
kilometer jog every morning before breakfast. It was my girlfriend who invited me to
participate in this. First of all, we've just moved in together. We're postgraduates and we
moved out of the university accommodation and found an apartment for ourselves. The
apartment is not too far from the river, the Yangtze. So we can go out in the morning
and run along the river bank. It has the effect of energizing you to start the day. It was
my girlfriend who invited me. “The help I asked for” Well, as I was out of practice (疏于
练习) of jogging, I used to run more, certainly in high school. I used to be in the
athletics team, but during my undergraduate years, I became a little bit kind of, I won't
say lazy, but I think you know what students are like, many of them, in any case, they do
not go out of their way to find strenuous activities (剧烈运动) to do, quite the opposite
usually. I needed to energize my body, to strengthen my body, to increase my fitness
level. And I think to increase the blood flow to my brain, to sharpen my work and my
studies, I feel that these are all positive side effects of jogging. And so this is why I think
the activity has affected me in a positive way, because it tends to give the day a flying
start. You're already exercised. Your blood is flowing before breakfast, and then by the
time you've eaten and you're ready to start your work, the whole system is in full
operational mode, which I think is a great advantage.

中文思路: 最近我开始晨跑了。自从我跟我女朋友从学校搬出来同居后，她邀请我和她
一起。我高中的时候是田 径队的，但上大学后怠惰了。晨跑可以让我的一天有个充满
活力的开始，促进血液流动的同时提高我 的工作、学习效率。

What outdoor activities are popular in China?

I think two of the most popular outdoor activities in China must be the after-dinner
activities during the good weather of walking, a constitutional (保健散步) walk after
dinner by couples or families is very, very popular. Also for especially the ladies, but also
the gentleman after dinner, dancing in the garden in the park. These are two very, very
popular outdoor activities, I think. They're very good for the health of the Chinese
people as a whole. Into the sort of wider framework. China is not traditionally set up for
outdoor activities in the recreational (消遣的) sense, because in the past life was an
outdoor activity in the working sense. The families, the people tended the fields to feed
the family. That's an outdoor activity, a strenuous (费力的), vigorous (强健的) outdoor
activity leaving very little time for leisure or recreation. And so we have a new paradigm
(新范例) here. We can date a lot of it back to the time of Deng Xiaoping. Deng
Xiaoping, who introduced the idea of prosperity (繁荣) to the Chinese people. And
Deng Xiaoping, particularly spoke of Huangshan in his addresses to the Chinese people
about the benefits of prosperity and the possibility of recreation. When he said that
Huangshan would be developed as a place for Chinese people to go and enjoy the
beautiful scenery (风景，景色) and also the fantastic teas which are cultivated (开垦，
耕作) out there. So that's another type of outdoor activity: going to a beautiful scenic
area (景区), drinking tea, just some of the peculiarly (特别) Chinese outdoor activities

Are people who like dangerous activities more likely to be successful in life?

This is definitely a two-edged-sword (双刃剑) if I may retail (述说) the cliché (陈词滥调).
On the one hand, there is no question and this is based on kind of psychological
research that the CEO, the chief executive officer in an organization is likely to be one of
the most risk tolerant people in the organization. So bosses tend to be high-risk
individuals which matches up with dangerous outdoor activities. Like I don't know what,
parachuting? Perhaps paragliding (滑翔伞运动), certainly aerobatic (用特技飞行的)
activities in general, flying, gliding. These tend to be dangerous activities and you're
going to find a lot of wealthy people, chief executives, successful business people
involved in those activities, partly because they're aggressive people, and partly
because they have the money to do so. However, there are dangerous activities. So if
we go to the extreme of things like rock-climbing or Wingsuit flying (翼装飞行), there's
a pretty good chance of people not surviving into middle age even in those activities,
because there's quite a high death toll (死亡人数) associated with them. So high in fact
that insurance companies will not cover the risk to their lives. So you've got two
answers to this question. People who like dangerous activities, they may be chief
executive officers and rich, or they may be dead.

Do you agree that people should try as many new activities as possible?

I accept this point provided that the last two words are included as possible. Because as
we all know in this world, time is money. Trying new activities requires both time and
money. And do we all have the leisure to be trying as many new activities as possible?
Wait a minute. Isn't it only less than 10 years ago that Jack Ma said Chinese people
need to work 9-9-6 in order to win this economic struggle to fulfill our potential as a
nation. What time is there for people who work 9-9-6 to try as many new activities as
possible? I think that the possibility here is relatively low, so try new activities, maybe, if
there's a potential benefit there, perhaps, but as many as possible, no, it sounds
unrealistic and eventually perhaps a waste of time.

7、争论

A disagreement you had with someone

You should say:
Who you had the disagreement with What the disagreement was
What happened
And explain how you felt about it

This is a difficult topic to talk about, because disagreements are always negative and
some feelings will be hurt along the way. So it's always regrettable (令人懊悔的). It was
certainly regrettable when I had a disagreement with one of my old friends about a
research project we were doing together. We were engaged in some historical research.
The cause of the disagreement was that my friend did not have access to the same
information that I did, so I ended up having to do most of the work. This is the cause of
the disagreement between us. I was trying to express the fact that there was an unequal
workload under the circumstances for whatever reason. But unfortunately, my colleague
and friend interpreted this as a criticism (批判) of his own work ethic (职业道德), and
also perhaps interpreted it as if I were in some way, kind of in a responsible or senior
position in the partnership, which wasn't the case. But anyway, it's always difficult to talk
about these things. We had to really cancel that project because of the disagreement. It
took quite a while to overcome the ill feeling. Because when you have these
disagreements, it also percolates (浸透) out to others as well, other members of the
group, other members of the circle. That kind of taints (污染) the atmosphere a little bit
as well. But I'm very happy to say that now we are back where we were. Time is the
great healer. We're in excellent communication as we ever were, even contemplating
(策划) new collaborative (合作的) projects. I feel good about it now, but it was quite
difficult at the time.

中文思路: 我和一个老朋友曾因为一个合作项目产生分歧，由于我们没有好好沟通，造
成了工作内容分配的不平 等，进而加深了误会，影响了个人的情绪和两个人之间的关
系和氛围。虽然最后我们还是和好了，但 是当意见存在分歧时真的是一件很难处理的
事情。

What is the right thing to do if you disagree with someone?

Well, communication is the answer. Relationships are based on communication. So the

key is effective communication. I'm going to take responsibility here. In the example
that I spoke about, my communication must not have been ideally effective because of
the negative feelings that arose from the issue. If I had dealt with it in a more effective
manner, there wouldn't have been the ill feeling, there would have been a negotiated
solution. So the obvious answer is to speak honestly and sincerely about the issue
under disputes. “Let's talk about this. Here is the way I see the situation. How do you
see the situation? What can we do to harmonize (协调) our views, to resolve problems
that we perceive?” That is the way to deal with the disagreement. As I say, again,
obviously, I did not follow the steps well enough to emerge from that disagreement
without some ill feeling.
How can we stop an argument from escalating into a fight?

This is more difficult. First of all, a fight implies some kind a of a posture (立场) to begin
with, right? The fact that fighting is a possibility indicates a certain mindset. Surely most
people are not walking around the office or down the street expecting a fight if there's
any disagreement about anything. You disagree with the shopkeeper about the
condition of the item and start fighting. So I think what I'm trying to say here is it's a
question of attitude, isn't it? If people are looking for fights, they will find them. If
people are looking to live a peaceful and reasonable life, they'll probably have less
chance of escalating arguments into fights by maintaining rationality (理性), by focusing
on the issues, by avoiding personal, keep it professional and impersonal (不受个人感情
影响的). These are good ways to avoid escalating an argument into a fight. And don't
they always say it is a final as the last resort (孤注一掷的行为). If you can't achieve a
mutually acceptable answer, then just walk away from it. Now, that's not always an easy
thing to do here, either. We're talking about extreme emotions and we're talking about
fighting. But I think that if everybody precedes in a reasonable, rational fashion and
uses the principle of communication to resolve differences, then the fighting will be
minimized.

What disagreements do parents and children usually have?

Let's think about the big ones. Homework first of all, in China, this is the big one,
homework. The overriding (不受个人感情影响的) priority is to get the grades, get the
place at the university, get the network and the certificate, and then get the job. This is
the priority. So this is the big one, homework, homework, homework. Then as the years
go by, will get into curfews (宵禁). How much time should the child be in the house?
How much time can they be allowed to be outside? And then when they are outside the
house, why? what are they doing? So friends is another cause of disagreement between
parents and children. If the parents think their children are spending too much time
outside or hanging around with the wrong people, there's a course for disagreement.
Also, perish the thought (打消念头). Boys and girls now in China, that's not such a big
thing because we've all been trained to put aside thoughts of marriage until after
graduation. But this is also another possible area of disagreement from teenage
onwards, really, choices of partner. This will become later on the problem of marriage,
“Who you're going to marry” That's a cause of disagreement. “When you're going to
have a child?” That's another cause of disagreement. “What job you're going to get?”
That's another cause of disagreement. “What degree are you going to do?” Another
cause of disagreement. “What are you doing with your money?” Another cause of
disagreement. There are plenty of causes of disagreement. But what parents and
children should be looking for is areas of agreement on which they can build mutual
understanding, cooperation and respect.
8、糟糕购物

A problem you had while shopping online or in a store

You should say:

When it happened
What you bought
What problem you had
And explain how you felt about the experience

Actually, this situation is exactly what happened to me about 2 weeks ago. This is very
fresh in my mind. I went into an Apple store to buy an Apple Watch. I looked at all the
models that they had on display. I said, "I think I'm going to go with this one." I chose
the model. They said, "Okay, the one you've chosen is a display model. You can't take
that with you now. We're going to have one sent to you, but please pay now, then we'll
arrange everything." So, I paid in the store. It was all arranged through their online
warehouse, if you like. I paid in the store and no receipt was given to me. And I said,
"Where's the receipt?" The assistant said, "That will be sent you by email." I check my
email, "There's nothing there now." "It'll come within 1 to 2 days." It didn't come at all.
And so, when the phone didn't arrive either, when the shipping company failed to
deliver it, I was in the real mess, because I didn't have any kind of record of buying it.
And you know, nobody would listen to me if I called, if I went to the online customer
service, nobody would listen to me. In the end, the only thing for me to do was to go
back to the store, where immediately the shop assistant said, "I recognize you." I said,
"Good, because that's important. You didn't give me any paperwork." We had the
manager there, we had the IT manager there. Together, we managed to figure the
whole thing out and get me a receipt and a refund. But you know what? I was in real
trouble there. I could have lost the whole amount of money because of this error by the
shop.

中文思路: 两周前我去苹果店买手表。由于我买的那个没货，店员让我先付款然后他们
安排从仓库出货。但是我 没有拿到任何的回执和收据，手机也没有寄送给我。我回到
店里，幸运的是店员还记得我，经过协商 后为我办理了退款，真的是有惊无险的一次
经历。

What are the differences between shopping online and in store?

Yes, and if I may say so, I think my recent experience illustrates the answer perfectly.
Here's the thing, the online shopping phenomenon, I would say, over the past 12 years,
has just taken over everything. It's so easy to make the purchase anyway and so
convenient to do so, if everything is fulfilled in good order. But as my experiences have
shown me, the Apple Watch was not the first example of being disappointed by online
purchases, especially of expensive technology. Because I've also had delivery drivers
disappear with these things and one thing in another. So, this is the problem with
shopping online. Fulfillment is the word "getting that into your hands." It's very, very
easy to choose it and to click the “pay the purchase”. But then wait and see what
happens after that. Whereas going into the shop, well, as in my experience, it was the
only solution, because nobody was going to believe me online, only by standing in
front of the person who did it, who was honest enough not to lie. Could I actually solve
the problem? So, think of that, you see, at the end of the day, the answer is shopping in
the store is more reliable. It may be more inconvenient, but it's more reliable.

What do you consider to be good customer service?

Certainly not what we get nowadays. Customer service used to be something of an art
where people would go to study methods of greeting customers and providing
relationship, management, things like this. But that whole human interface seems to
have disappeared now, and it's been replaced by automated telephone systems. If you
try to call or by bots in terms of online customer service, or outsourcing to third world
countries with linguistic (语言的) barriers, and also technical and knowledge barriers
and so forth. So custom service really has disappeared. And again, I think is related to
the growth of the online industry, because everything is expected to be done without
human interaction to maximize the profit for the billionaire who owns the online
platform. And customer service, we're going back to the biological model again.
Survival of the fittest (适者生存). If you're lucky, if the model comes intact, you survive.
If you're unlucky, somebody steals it, or they don't fulfill them's the breaks (这就是运
气), as they say, in American slang. So, the good customer service seems to have
disappeared.

What do you think customers should do when there are problems with products
bought online?

Yes, there we are. The same issues arise again. What can you do? The first thing you can
be sure of is spending many hours of your time listening to pre-recorded messages
and some background music, because there are no humans at the switchboard of the
emergency customer service call-in center. So that's one thing you can do. You can
waste many hours of your time. And then you can waste many more hours of your time
because people at the call center do not know what they're talking about. And so that is
also lost time. Sometimes in the final analysis, you have to go to law with these things,
which is highly inconvenient. But unfortunately, that's all you can do. So, it's a shame,
but that's the way it is. Survival of the fittest.
9、印象深刻的英语课

An impressive English lesson you had and enjoyed

You should say:

What it was about
When you had it
What the teacher did
And why you enjoyed the lesson

One English lesson that made a big impression on me was the very first lesson I had
when I went to an English summer camp in London. What was it about? It was
supposed to be an introduction to the program. But what the teacher did was took us
straight to a coffee house and went around and said, "Hi, what's your name? What
would you like to drink?" Ordered the drinks, and then he said, "Right, we'll get to know
each other. Hi, what's your name?" So instead of being constrained (驱使) by the white
board and any kind of dramatic or structural constraints at the beginning, we just
immediately had to really kind of start off by communicating. "Hi, what's your name?
What do you want to drink?' kind of thing. It really came as a shock to me in fact, after
the way I've been learning English in China, where everything seemed to be based on
paper text, and all kind of dialogues involved reading and writing as well as direct
communication. This was a bit of a shock to my system, if you like. And so, I would say
that it opened the door. It was one of the most valuable lessons of that cold summer
camp. From the very beginning, it demonstrated the use of the language as an
everyday tool, not some remote objective, some distant challenge that we were all kind
of struggling and waiting to approach, which is quite a different outlook from what I'd
been used to.

中文思路: 令我印象最深刻的英语课是在伦敦英语夏令营的第一节课。不同于传统的教
室教学，老师把我们带去 了一间咖啡馆，向我们展示了如何将英语运用到日常生活
中，比如互相寒暄，如何点单等。令我印象 非常深刻。

Why do people learn foreign languages?

In China that's a very important question because there is no cultural history of foreign
language learning in China, quite the opposite in fact. The Great Wall of China was
really constructed to exclude the Tower of Babel (巴别塔), the proliferation (激增，剧
增) of barbarian (野蛮人) tongues in central Asia, and make sure that the land of the
hand was pure and the language of the people was pure, too. And so foreign
languages, it's not a Chinese thing at all. But in recent times, especially with the period
of... well, let's start with the republic, Dr Sun Yat-sen, and the republican leaders of
China in the first part of the 20th century, opted for what you might call an early
globalist dance. They collaborated (合作) with America, Germany and Japan in the early
days to internationalize China. They wanted to modernize China by internationalizing it.
So, this began at the beginning of the 20th century and then universities created by
Americans then appeared in China where English was the necessary language of
instruction. So, we can certainly date foreign language learning in China back to there,
which we're talking about the 1920s. And then after the reform and opening up, let's
call in 1980s, it became necessary for Chinese business to communicate with
international business. Did so happens that English functions at the moment as the
language of international business has done forever. Pidgin English was the first form of
English for international business are spoken in Hong Kong along the Chinese coasts.
People learn foreign language very much for trade and commercial purposes.

What makes a good foreign language teacher?

In addition to the qualities that I think all teachers need, which is good patients and
clear communication and a pleasant positive manner and fair judgments on students'
performance, assuming all of those things are in place. I think it's very important that a
foreign language teacher understands the mechanics of language so that they are able
to identify the tricks and tips and shortcuts that a learner needs to gain confidence
quickly in the language. I think it is important that the teacher has first-hand experience
of going through the same process, better if the teacher knows and understands the
language of the learner as well actually, even though the standard position is "No, the
teacher doesn't need to know anything about the learners' language". That is true from
the point of view of communication driven by need, which is good. That's what that let
the teacher did for me in the lesson that impressed me. He demonstrated using
language as a tool of communication to fulfill real everyday needs, which is a very good
methodology, a very good philosophy. But if we're talking about an all-round (全面的)
good language teacher, I think a language teacher also needs to understand the
mechanics of language and the more deeply, the better so that they can analyze the
challenges more effectively for the learners. And again, guide them through with more
kind of. clear understanding of the mechanisms of language. I think, in my opinion,
thank you.

Do you think the grammar is important when learning foreign languages?

Really there's no communication without grammar. What does grammar mean?

Grammar means building essentially, building meaning. Without grammar, you can't
have meaning because meaning is built out of grammar. So even Pidgin English (洋泾
浜英语), let's go back to the very primitive (原始的) what people would call one of the
most crude (粗略的) forms of the English language. Pidgin English is a kind of hybrid
(混合的) form or rather the same very simplified form of English that exists all around
the maritime (海上的，海事的) coast of southeast Asia, where British naval (海军的)
units and tradesmen traveled during the years of imperialism (帝国主义) and
colonialism (殖民主义). A Pidgin English it still has a grammar. Otherwise, you couldn't
make sense. So, grammar is essential. And again, to be a good language teacher, you
have to understand, you have to know that and be able to explain that. It's no good just
saying "Never mind, it'll be fine". And even the teacher who started our lessons in the
coffee house in London, by the time the course was over, we had been given all of the
necessary grammar in order to expand our range of communication skills. But starting
out with that very important impression that the real-life communication was the name
of the game.

10、信息搜索

A time when you needed to search for information

You should say:

What information you needed to search for When you searched for it
Where you searched for it
And explain why you needed to search for it

For some reason, first instance that comes to mind is the intriguing (非常有趣的) case
of the Mangshan Viper (毒蛇). Yes, I know that might sound rather odd. Let me go
back. I was in the habit of cycling through a large park on the south side of Nanjing that
ran along the banks of the Yangtze River and turned the corner onto the Qinhuai Canal.
It was a very beautiful area, and this was really during the construction phase when the
works was still continuing in the park. Old farms that had been there before were being
removed. Occasionally I would find snakes on the roads there because of the
movement of heavy trucks, and this was no exception. I was riding along, and then I
saw a snake. I was struck by the little white grub (蛆) at the end of its tale. You see, this
was the kind of snake that uses its tails to bait (引诱). And then whatever comes up, a
mouse or a bird to eat this little worm that looks like the end of the tail that looks like a
worm, the viper will strike and kill it and eat it. This snake is very small. It's only about 25
centimeters' long, quite fat though with a triangular head like all vipers. I didn't know
what it was when I first saw it, so I had to search for the information. And of course,
online is your only option. It was quite difficult to find, but in the end, I discovered it was
that, quite a rare snake in China and not normal in Jiangsu province, the Mangshan
Viper.

中文思路: 有次我在南京的一个公园骑车的时候，碰到一条尾巴末端是白色的，头是三
角形的蛇，我猜测是毒蛇， 但不知道他是什么，我只好去网上搜索信息。最后才知道
他是一种罕见的蛇，叫莽山烙铁头蛇。

How can people search for information now?

Well, the only way is the internet unfortunately. It is reaching that point. I recently heard
from a friend of mine that he was visiting a town in Britain. He searched online and
there was a public library. He wanted to search some local history from local history
books that perhaps hadn't been transcribed into online formats. When he got to the
reference library of the local library in the town, it was closed. There was nothing there,
the shelves were empty. And he said "Where are the books?" They said "The books
have been destroyed." The books have been destroyed and so this is the situation now,
I'm afraid. You have no real choice, it's online or nothing and that's where I ended up
getting the information about that rare snake in China from online sources in English,
even though it's about an animal that's pretty much exclusively found in China. The only
place you'll find it is on the English language internet or, perhaps on the Chinese
language internet too. But the internet is where it is.

What information can people get from television?

My answer to that is information that the owners of the television company want
people to get. That is why personally, I'm not really a fan of television. The television
content is driven by interests, whether that be financial interests of advertising
companies or political interests or whatever, other interests, but not really for the
benefit of the people. So, I'm not really interested in television. And again, the other
side of the coin, the fact that there is no reference library anymore in that town in
England. The flip side of the coin is, I can find out information about the Mangshan
Viper online. And I can choose my own entertainment or my own information sources
online, as opposed to watching television, which is not freedom of choice. It's what's
given to us. The choice we have is if we watch it or not watch it, whereas online we can
choose what we want to watch.

Do you think libraries are still important in the digital age?

To be extremely honest with you, I never believed I would ever have to say this, but I'm
afraid the answer is no. Libraries are obviously not still important in the digital age. And
again, I refer to the case of my good friend who in the course of his research at
Manchester University went to a local library to research some important art, local art
and local history. And the books had been pulped (特指书本回收). This is how
important libraries are in the digital age. So, I'm very, very sorry to say that is my
answer.
11、失约

A time when you forgot/missed an appointment

You should say:

What the appointment was for
Who you made it with
Why you forgot/missed it
And explain how you felt about the experience

This is a very, very painful topic for me, because to this day, I still regret the fact that I
missed the appointment on one particular occasion. It was an occasion when an old
professor of mine was passing through the town. He dropped me an email to let me
know that he'd becoming through and suggested a place where we could meet for
lunch as we used to lunch together when I was studying with him at my old university. I
made the arrangements. I did everything and I don't know, really, there was certainly a
turbulent (动乱的) period in my life. I might have to be moving house or changing my
job at the time. There was a lot of turbulence. Certainly, I was traveling around a lot at
that time. I guess I must have been quite exhausted. But on the day of the appointment,
it completely slipped out of my mind. I just went through the day without even thinking
about it until somebody else asked me a couple of days later, "How did it go?" And
then I realized I hadn't made the end, met the professor. I hadn't turned up at the
appointed place at the appointed hour. What must he have felt? How must he feel
now? I felt terrible about it and I felt terrible about it then. And I feel terrible about it
now. We have spoken in the meantime, and it was quite civil and friendly, but I know
that I lost some opportunity through that. And it is one of my great big regrets in life, I
think.

中文思路: 我错过了与一位老教授共进午餐的约会，我曾跟从那位教授学习，但那段时
间刚好是我生活比较杂乱 的时候，可能是搬家也可能是换工作。在约定的当日，我完
全忘记了这件事情，直到后来有人提起这 件事。尽管我们仍然友好谈话，但有些东西
已经一去不复返了。

How do busy people remember all the things that they need to do?

There are many professional tools to help people to organize their time. The most
obvious is a diary. Anybody who is serious about what they're doing should have a
diary, so that every day is planned, and even every hour is planned to the extent as
possible. And so that diary can be shared. So other people who need them know where
they are. A diary, obviously, is the primary tool, again, indispensable (必需的) for
anyone who is engaged in any serious Enterprise. The second thing is the very
elementary to-do-list, so that at the end of each day, one can summarize the tasks that
have been accomplished, and then see what's outstanding, which jobs remain to be
done, and then prioritize those for the following day, and then match those priorities
with the time available in the diary. There are tools available for this. Even little notes,
although one has to be careful here, but even leaving a posted note, just a small note, a
brightly colored note, sticking somewhere on the mirror perhaps, or pinned to a board
in a visible place is another very, very basic way. I know also some families have black or
white boards on the wall in the kitchen, so that they can make a note for everyone to
see of the priorities for the family for the day, even the menu, whatever, there are many
ways. And it really just takes a little bit of discipline and a little bit of communication to
avoid these very embarrassing and potentially costly mistakes of not remembering
things.

Why do many people have difficulty managing their time?

Again, I would say this is a matter of self-discipline. I think that many people are
unrealistic about lots of things. They're unrealistic about the effects on their health of
their diet. They're unrealistic about how much they eat. They're unrealistic about how
little or exercise they get. If they smoke, cigarettes are unrealistic about the dangers of
doing that. People are unrealistic about themselves and about reality and there's a
certain sort of category of people who are always late for appointments because they're
unrealistic in their planning of the time needed to reach the appointment, things like
this. So, a lack of self-discipline and a lack of realism. These are the reasons I think why
people have difficulty managing their time. There's another one, ease of interruption.
People have difficulty managing their time if they're not good at managing people.
There are some people whose time can be constantly wasted by interruptions and
others who have the skill of diverting responsibility to others so their own time is not
wasted. Many people do not have that skill, so having once time commandeered (霸占)
and taken over and wasted by others, that's another reason why people might have
difficulty managing their time.

Is it possible to improve one's memory?

Unquestionably, it's possible to improve any part of one system, if you like. It's possible
to improve one's muscles, one's lung capacity, one's blood pressure, one's heart rate.
It's possible to improve all kinds of things and it's definitely possible to improve one's
memory. There are very specific exercises that have been designed in order to do this:
memorizing names, memorizing objects, techniques for remembering things,
association, visualization, onomatopoeia ( 拟 声 词 ), assonance ( 半 谐 音 ). There
are many ways of memorizing. So, it's definitely possible, again, I think, as we were
saying with the previous questions, realism and self-discipline are the issues. If you're
really serious about improving your memory, and you have the self-discipline to go
through the process of mastering the available techniques. Then it's a very
straightforward matter. The method is there. But the question is resolve (坚定的信念)
determination and self-discipline. This is the issue.

12、决意等待

A time you made a decision to wait for something

You should say:

When it happened
What you waited for
Why you made the decision
And explain how you felt about the decision

This was an incident that happened to me recently when I went to buy an Apple Watch
from the apple store. The people at the Apple store that I went to only had the
demonstrator model in available. They didn't have one that they could sell. They
showed me the demonstrator. I tried it on. I decided to buy it. They said, "We'll have to
send you one from our warehouse". And it never came. There was a big problem about
actually getting delivery of my watch. I finally got it in the end, but not before there was
a lot of problems, a lot of delays, and a lot of customer service help needed. So, at the
end of the process, the manager said, "Because of your difficulties, I'm going to
compensate you with a complimentary (免费赠送的) watch strap from us, up to the
value of $100, which was very nice it seems. So, I said I will accept it and they said,
"Have a look at the catalogue, see which one you like, and we'll get it for you". I looked
at the catalogue and there was one that I definitely wanted to have. Especially as this
was a complimentary gift, I was going to take advantage of it in full. I said, "I'll go for
that one". They said, "Sorry, that's not in stock. Would you like something else?" I said,
"No, if you don't mind, I'll wait for it." They've already caused me problems getting
delivery of the watch in the first place. And so far, I'm still waiting for the replacement
watch strap, but I think that it's better to wait for the one I really want than to accept
the ones that they wanted to give me that I didn't really want. And so, I'm going to
stand my decision, stand by my decision and go to the shop and make sure that I get
the one that I've selected from them.

中文思路:
我最近去买 Apple 手表的时候，由于我看中的机型没有货，店员说给我安排从仓库寄
送，但是由于中 间发生了差错我一直没收到手表，客户经理告诉我可以赠送我一条价
值 100 美元的表带作为补偿。我 挑了喜欢的那款但是又没货，我坚持决定等待我想
要的那款，而不是妥协选个别的款式。
Why do some people like a slow-paced life?

This is a very philosophical (哲学的) question, isn't it? I mean, what do people want
from life? There are all these pressures it seems on people. It seems that far too often
people don't make their own decisions about what they want from life. So, everything's
imposed upon (强加于) us from going to buy food at McDonald's, to getting married,
to living in a certain apartment or buying a certain kind of car or choosing a certain
major or applying for a certain job. Is it what people actually want or is it something
that's imposed upon them? I think that some people just would prefer to be left alone. I
really think so. When I look at my circle of friends, there're certain individuals there, you
think they really don't want to be bothered. They really don't want to be hassled (使烦
恼) and pressured by these demands in the world. They just want a simple, quiet life,
and that involves a slower pace. And why not? Because at the end of the day, we all go
the same way, no matter how wealthy you become, even the billionaires, the
ridiculously wealthy billionaires, trillionaires that we have now. When they pass, they
can't take their money with them. I think some people keep that philosophy through
their whole lives, and they don't want to be pushed and hassled and harassed (疲惫焦
虑 的) and pressured into doing things. They want to take it at their own pace.

Is being patient good for people?

Undoubtedly, I think is very clear that being patient is good for people. On a
physiological level for a start. If you're patient, you are likely to have a lower blood
pressure, because high blood pressure comes from stress, which is very much fueled by
impatience. If you're patient, you're less likely to die in a car accident, because you
won't take the same risks that people who are permanently in a hurry feel they have to
take as a result of their lack of patients. In terms of your relationship with your fellow
human beings, your patience will be valued by others, because your patience will take
the pressure from them, whereas the insistent, pushy, urgent manager will make their
lives more difficult. The patient leader will inspire loyalty and a sense of fairness and
perhaps get a better result from the team.

Are people less patient now than in the past? And why?

In China, there's no question about it. Patience is central to the soul of a nation that for
5,000 years was content to stay right where it was, where everybody harvested their
own small acre of land for rice and vegetables, chicken and an egg for 5,000 years.
That's what everybody did all the time, except for the emperor or the admiral of the
treasure fleet. Everybody else was just doing that, planting rice, harvesting vegetables,
staying put (立足脚下), patiently waiting for the seasons to turn around and 1 year to
follow the last, as the family grew and hopefully prospered. Patience is central to the
soul of the Chinese people, but the modern world has changed much of that, that
world ended at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, we've had the republic,
we've had the wars, we've had the revolutions, we've had the reform and opening up.
Now we have WeChat and Alibaba. We have instant fulfillment, online shopping. We
have 5G telecommunications. We have the internet of things, Ai and robots. Everything
happens instantaneously (突 如其来地), and it's difficult to remain patient in a world
where all these pressures exist, not only that bureaucratization (官僚化) also increases
with the increase of technology. You're going to get a backup message on a separate
device in order to fulfill the transaction. What if something's wrong with any of these
devices? You're stuck, which adds to the pressure. No, I agree. People today are less
patient than in the past, because technology paradoxically (自相矛盾地), increases the
stress and the pressure. In my view

13、塑料废品

A time when you saw a lot of plastic waste (e.g. in a park, on the beach etc.)

You should say:

Where and when you saw the plastic waste Why there were a lot of plastic waste
What you did after you saw them
And explain what your thoughts were about this

I only have one plastic waste story. That is about a time when I was actually in Tokyo,
Japan. I was studying in Tokyo. It was just a short study program, and it was part of my
linguistic studies to study Japanese in Tokyo for a while. I used to go often to Yuyogi
park, which is a beautiful big park in a nice part of Tokyo, the North part of Tokyo. It
wasn't far from my home and breed out is another very nice area. But I used to go
down to Yuyogi park, to jog around the park and just to relax, very beautiful place to
go. Normally it was extremely clean. But one day I went there and I saw there were
plastic wastes everywhere. It must be because there had been some kind of event that
have brought people into the park. And for some reason, the standards of cleanness
was fallen. And I did a very strange thing. I don't know what possessed me, but I
suddenly had this burst of public feeling where I would take it upon myself to fix this
problem. And what did I do? I found a plastic bag and I went around the park, picking
up every piece of plastic waste I could see. This turned out to be a really nice exercise,
running around the park on a hot day, getting a suntan and cleaning the place up. It
made me feel very good about myself and very good about the place when it was as
clean as it normally was by the time I had finished. I look back on that, it has been a
very positive and spontaneous experience.
中文思路: 当我在东京交换学习的时候，有一次我去由代木公园慢跑，发现那里居然到
处都是塑料垃圾，由于那 里通常来说都非常干净，我感到十分震惊并自发决定把那里
打扫干净。当我完成后我感觉很好。

How can the use of plastic in the world be reduced?

People are trying, I think, to reduce the use of plastic. Although I do have to say efforts
are sort of halfhearted (不认真的) at the moment, because there isn't a consistent
policy in place. For example, in some places, you might see cardboard straws, paper
straws, bamboo straws, and things like this. But then in others, you'll see plastic ones.
Still, plastic lids on paper coffee cups. It's a halfhearted effort to reduce the use of
plastic and some markets insist on renewable bags or paper bags. But the paper bag
thing is trailing off (缩 少) and I see more and more plastic bags in use again. And then
packaging, they talk a lot about packaging, how packaging should be reduced. But of
course, this is a function of supply chains. If we don't use plastic for packaging, how can
we stop food from spoiling? How can we move food to from production to
distribution? It's difficult, it really is. Globalization and the sort of widespread
dependence on technology inevitably brings with it corollary (必然的结果) damage
collateral (附属的) damage. This is just the price that we have to pay for a high
technology, high comfort instant gratification (令人喜悦的事物) society.

What kinds of plastic waste are often seen in your country?

I think in China, probably the most frequently seen form of plastic waste is the plastic
bag, whether it be amount of whites shopping bag or a black garbage disposal bag.
Plastic bags can take the air, they empty themselves somehow and take to the air and
blow through the atmosphere, travel far and wide until they get tangled up (缠在一起)
in something. You see a lot of plastic bags, you also see a lot of plastic bottles: workers
drinking water, chuck (扔) the bottle onto the ground and let it lie there until the
cleanup crews arrive. I would say those are the two most common, I mean there might
be others like rope, net, string, wire, fishing line kind of thing in certain places
commonly seen along the coast, especially. But I would say by large, the most frequent
forms are plastic bags and plastic bottles.

Why do people like to use plastic products?

No, I'm not sure it's a question of liking to use. I think it's more a case of there not
being an alternative. I've seen documentary films and read books about how things
were before. Even during the cultural revolution in China, using paper to wrap food
products and tin cans, I suppose, will be the method of preservation ((食物 的)保存).
Otherwise, everything had to be eaten immediately. And we still have those customs in
China. Most food is still eaten on the day of purchase. That's a good thing. However,
around the world, that is not the predominant (占主导地位的) pattern, and so whatever
you buy inside the supermarket has to be encased (包装的) in plastic in order for it to
not rot away (腐烂), for it to survive long enough to be sold to you. So, it's not that
people like to use plastic. It's that in the modern world, given the length of supply
chains, they have no choice but to use it.

14、收钱

A time when you received money as a gift

You should say:

When it happened
Who gave you money
Why he/she gave you money
And explain how you used the money

I remember one particular occasion when I received a reasonable amount of money as

a gift, and this was on the occasion of my 18th birthday. Because at that time, it just so
happened that my rich uncle who was in town. This is my father's twin brother who
works in the construction industry. He started quite early in Africa with a construction
company. When China became heavily involved in overseas development in the 1990s,
and the early 2000s, my uncle went off to central Africa with his construction company
and quickly progressed through the ranks and became a manager and was extremely
well paid for it. This was the uncle who came back to Nanjing when I was 18. My
parents held a party and everybody was there from the family who was available at
least, and those are very nice. And my uncle said to me “I want to give you something,
but I don't want to choose the wrong gift. We haven't spent a lot of time together, so I
don't know you very well. Certainly not well enough to decide what kind of gift would
be the ideal gift for you.” So he reached into his pocket and he pulled out a wad of (一
叠) notes and said instead, “I'm going to give you this, at least I know that you'll be able
to use this in the best possible way for yourself.” So I took my uncle at his word. And
basically, I used the money to finance my studies in the sense of books and resources
that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford. I could afford those and they
obviously helped me to get a good degree. And now here I am doing research.

中文思路:
在我 18 岁生日的时候我收到了来自于我叔叔的现金贺礼。他是我爸爸的孪生兄弟，
在 90 年代去非洲 做建筑生意，做的很成功。在我 18 岁生日的时候他刚好回国了并
且来参加了我的生日宴会。因为他 不了解我，与其买不适合的礼物，他觉得直接给我
现金会更好。我最后将这笔钱用在了我的学习上。
Do people use cash more or less nowadays? Why?

That's a very interesting question, and the answer depends on where you are. You see,
the thing is, the pressure against cash is really all part of the overriding (最重要的)
priority of governments, especially with governments in capitalist countries in the West,
especially in those societies to collect taxes. The government needs to collect taxes, and
so the government would prefer you to have your money in the bank, would prefer you
to be paid electronically by your employer and for you to pay for goods and services
electronically. So that the government knows exactly how much money you've got and
they can get their share of it in the form of tax. And what cash does is giving the user,
the owner of the cash a degree of autonomy (自主权), and a degree of anonymity (匿名
性). Cash can't be easily followed, track, located. In other words, you are free to use
your money as you wish when you use cash. The governments in the West especially do
not like that. And so now they are doing their best to remove cash from circulation. I'm
talking about Europe and those countries. They're trying very hard to get cash out of
circulation and replace everything with electronic money.

When do children begin to comprehend the value of money?

I would say when they start moving around independently, which normally happens, I
would say, around the age of 12 or 13, you know a sort of sometime in adolescence (青
春期), they begin to comprehend (理解) the value of money. And why? Because public
transport can cost money or moving around cost money. You buy a snack, you buy a
drink, you need money. You get on the bus, maybe you have a student card, it depends
on where you live. But ultimately it could require money to get on a bus or a train to do
something, to go somewhere. To enter a club might need money, even the children's
club. When children start to move around and act autonomously (独立自主的)
independently of their parents, where they're likely to be somewhere alone with no
adults’ escort (监护), that is the time when they appreciate the value of money, because
they're going to need money to get from A to B, to nourish (养育) themselves, to take
part in entertainment and so forth.

Should parents teach children to save money?

Absolutely. If a parents' role is to prepare their children for adulthood by developing life
skills within them, then obviously, financial management is one of the fundamental ones
that need to be taught and learned. Sadly, of many parents do not do this for various
reasons. One, because they're too busy to talk to their children. Or two, because they
themselves don't have the knowledge. Especially in China, where money was something
of a dirty word as recently as the cultural revolution. And the attitudes to money have
changed drastically (剧烈的) in the last 40 years. Some people still have a distorted (扭
曲的) idea of what money is. But anyway, that I digress (跑题), really. It is a primary
responsibility of parents to teach their children the importance of money, and also the
importance of saving money.

15、克服困难终成功

A difficult thing you did and succeeded

You should say:

What it was
How you overcame the difficulties
Whether you got help
And explain how you left after you succeeded

The first thing that comes to my mind is running the marathon, because that was a very
difficult thing that I did and required a lot of work to overcome the challenges, but
yielded (产生) a very warm feeling of achievement at the end of it all. This was a
marathon that was organized in the city one year, and I just thought I would take up the
challenge. I'm always trying to find ways to stay fit. That's what happened on this
occasion. When I saw the advertising for the marathon, I started to build a training
regime (生活规则， 养生之道(同 regimen)) for the race. The big problem to learn or
to teach, train your body to run 42 kilometers, requires a lot of preparatory (准备性的)
work. You can't just jump into it. It's a little bit like taking an IELTS writing test. There are
a lot of skills that have to be built. This sort of cohesion, vocabulary, grammar skills have
to be built up patiently before you can attempt the IELTS test. It's the same with a
marathon. You have to accustom (使习惯于) your body to long distances, so that the
bones, the skin of your legs and feet can cope with the impacts and the wear and tear
((一定时期内的)磨损，损耗). You've got to build up your stamina, your ability to keep
processing oxygen after many miles of running without pause. This was a lot of work,
and I didn't ask for any help. I did it mostly alone. I just built a training regime around
my normal commitments. And I managed it. I managed to complete the marathon,
which obviously gave me an enormous sense of achievement and also affirmation (肯
定，确认) that I am fit, and I can achieve goals if I set my mind to it. That was the most
difficult thing I can think of, and it had a successful outcome.

中文思路: 我要讲的是跑马拉松，跑马拉松需要克服很多困难，但也可以带来成就感。
跑马拉松需要做很多准备， 跟准备雅思写作一样，我需要习惯应对长时间的跑步以及
体能与身体消耗。为了应对即将到来的马拉 松，我准备了完备的训练计划，最后我成
功跑完了，感到非常自豪。这让我知道有志者事竟成。
Should people set goals?

I would say without question. It's rather like the analogy (类比) of the people setting out
on a car journey. They start driving first before somebody says, "Where are we going.
Where's the map?" Obviously, that's a very inefficient way to go about things, to start
acting before you've made the map of how you're going to achieve your goal, and how
you're going to arrive at your destination. That's what goal setting is all about. It's all
about creating a vision so that you can see the kind of result that you want. That's really
important. You've got to have that at the back of your mind. Otherwise, you can't make
all the correct decisions going forward to bring about the outcome. The plan involves
the vision of the goal, and then the working backwards from that in a logical fashion,
the steps necessary to achieve that goal. Once you've done that elementary step of
goal setting and task planning, this really boosts the efficiency of your progress,
because each step is dictated in a logical, structured fashion. You know what you have
to do next to get to where you're going because you know where you're going. I think
goal setting is fundamental, and it has to be a key part of any successful individual's skill
set.

How do you define success?

You can call me an idealist, but I have to say that I do not share the view of many
people I see around me in society that money is the ultimate criterion of success, simply
because I see a lot of people who have money and are very unhappy. Their lives, when
they wake up in the morning, when they look at themselves in the mirror, as they go
about their business, when they lie down at night to go to sleep, what do they see in
their mind's eye? Do they see a rosy, warm, positive picture? No, they're not happy
people. They have all this money, but all they see is more worries about how they'll
keep this money, how they'll get more money, who's trying to take their money away
from them, who cheated them, all this kind of stuff. It keeps them awake at night and
they age faster. You can see the lines on their faces as the years go by, because instead
of enjoying their lives and experiencing the world in all its aspects, they're focused on
these narrow material goals, not realizing the materiality is the least important thing in
the world, the world of nature, the world of ideas, the world of aesthetic beauty. For my
own part, I define success as, happiness with health, because the happiness alone is less
useful if you don't have the bodily functions to fully enjoy it. Health and happiness
together, I would say. If you have those, if you can maintain those and the marathon
running was all part of my strategy, my goal to maintain health, so that I can try to
maintain happiness as best as possible in this world.

How do we judge other people's success?

Again, that depends on our own perceived definition of success. If we say that success
is wealth, and that's the majority, I'm afraid in this society, money seems to be the most
objective measure we can think of to judge people, as it's manifested in clothing, in
cars, homes, postal addresses, holidays, education. People in general would judge
success in those terms. And particularly because we can't necessarily see the other
dimensions of success like health or happiness. Health is a bit easier to see, that from
the outside you can tell how well someone moves, the state of their coloring there, their
general energy levels, this kind of thing. You can tell, roughly speaking, by looking at
someone how healthy they are, but how happy they are, that's something completely
different. The fake smile is universally worn. It's hard to judge people's happiness, but
that's why I think for the most part people revert to materialism and material the criteria
to make their judgments about other people's success.

16、宜居之地

A city you would recommend as a nice place to live (not your hometown)

You should say:

What it is
Where it is
What you know about this place
And explain why you recommend it as a nice place to live

Apart from my hometown of Nanjing, which is a very beautiful place, I would

recommend Shanghai as a place to live. Shanghai needs very little introduction. It's a
well-known world city located in the east of China, the mouth of the Yangtze River. It is
one of the world cities of China and a gateway to the global community. It has a very
long history of trade, especially the international banking connections of China were
established on the bund in Shanghai, in those iconic buildings which still stand there,
the skyscrapers from the 1930s marking out the time when China really first reached
out to the wider world. What else I know about Shanghai? It's very, very international.
There's been a French community there for a very long time and also an international
community, and those influences are still very much present. So you can find very good
French food in Shanghai. It's also a very social place because where the money is,
people want to celebrate and show their wealth. It has fantastic nightclubs, restaurants
and so much nightlife to keep people amused. I like Shanghai because it has
everything. It’s a truly world city. If you want to meet people from the rest of the world,
practice your languages and have the best of all worlds, I would say live in Shanghai.
中文思路: 我觉得上海是一座十分宜居的城市，上海历史悠久，交通便利，是中国衔接
世界的大门。上海也是一 个国际化的大都市，世界各地的人都来此定居生活，有最丰
富的夜生活。我十分建议你去上海居住。

Where are some of the most popular places to live in your country?

In China, if you mean populous (人口稠密的) places to live, we have some very big
cities like Beijing for example, like Shanghai for example, like Chongqing. for example.
Popular places, that's an interesting question in China, because you see, traditionally
people live in the place where they are born. Chinese society has been very static and
sedentary (定居的) throughout its history. The people are very widely distributed across
the arable (与种植有关的) and agricultural lands of China. The family has its own small
plot of land which service year-round and provides the livelihood for the people. So this
is not a cultural context in which people move around freely and easily take up
residents in a new place. However, in the course of the Chinese economic opening up
following Deng Xiaoping and following in the latter years of the 20th century and the
beginning of the 21st century. China did see a considerable movement of peoples,
especially to the areas in the south in and around Guangdong. Cities like Shenzhen
have attracted a lot of people because of new industries that were popping up,
capitalizing on the general opening up of China to the outside world. So if there is an
area in China which has been a popular destination for people relocating to urban
areas, I would say that is the southern area of Guangdong and the area around
Shenzhen, perhaps the new territories adjacent to Hong Kong.

Why do many people move to the city?

Well, the bottom line is money, isn't it? Money talks. The problems in the countryside,
again, as I mentioned, the countryside has been the traditional home for the majority of
Chinese people throughout the country's long history. The majority of people have
lived in a subsistence (自给自足的) fashion, gardening and farming their own small plot
of land at a subsistence level. Perhaps this has been as a satisfactory status quo (现状)
in an unequal society. The poor people work for their living and the elites live in the
cities and enjoy the wealth of the nation. This is the traditional model. In more modern
times in China, things have changed. The cities have become connected with the wider
world through globalization of industry and finance. And so now, in modern China,
there's a combination of two things: One, the ability to move, thanks to modern
infrastructure, the high-speed rails, and, two the availability of money, thanks to
industrial and globalization. So, what has happened then is that a lot of people have
moved from the countryside to cities, especially those with an international market as it
were for the domestic produce. The people have moved there in order to work and
gain more money and also benefit from better health and educational opportunities.
What are the advantages of living close to the workplace?

I think there are numerous advantages. One is economic because then you don't have
to spend time and money on travel. In fact, the other is the convenience, no need for
traffic jams and all of the crush on the public transportation, perhaps things like this, the
closer you live to the workplace, the less of that you have to worry about. So I was
summarized by saying the closer you live to the workplace, the more time you have
available for yourself, and the less overhead in terms of commuting costs. So therefore,
it makes financial sense to live close to the workplace.

17、常去的熟人之家

The home of someone you know well and that you often visit

You should say:

Whose home it is
How often you go there
What it is like
And explain how you feel about the home

I'd like to talk about the home of one of my very good friends. We met during the first
week at university and instantly hit it off (一拍即合) very well. This is a guy who comes
from a very poor background, as you will shortly hear. He actually lives with his father
and his brother. The mother has gone due to a disagreement with the father. And so
now the two boys live with their father. I go there often because not only am I very
good friends with the guy from my class, but also I really like his older brother and his
father. They're very nice people. The problem is there's no one in the house to do
housework. If you could imagine what a house is like with three men living in there, it’s
quite hard to describe. Nobody is cleaning the house. Nobody is regularly doing the
laundry. The bathtub acts as the washing machine and doesn't get used very often.
There are books and papers piled everywhere. There are empty plates and cups piled
everywhere. There’re knives and forks on the floor, chopsticks on the floor. It's a really
chaotic (混乱的) home. But how do I feel about it? Those are great men. I really enjoy
their company. They always make me very welcome. I can't criticize the fact that none
of them has the gumption (精力) to do the housekeeping. It's not my responsibility, it's
not my home. But I'm always very welcome when I go there. Even though it is one of
the more unusual homes I’ve had to visit.

中文思路: 我有个出身贫寒的朋友，他的家让我印象深刻，他的妈妈很早就离开了家，
他跟爸爸弟弟一起生活， 我经常去他家做客，他们家人对我都特别好，但是你可以想
象 3 个男人住的房子会是一个什么样的状 况，真的非常脏乱。对此我也不方便过多
评论，只能说真的是我见过最不寻常的的房子之一。

Would you prefer to live in the city or in the countryside?

That's a very interesting question, because in my case, the answer is both.

Unfortunately, that's not feasible, although it does reflect my youth: living on the edge
of the city close to the mountains. I remember my childhood. I was very much aware of
having the city close at hand, but also the beautiful wilderness and some of the birds
that you'll see in the trees also very close at hand. So I really like both. One has to be
realistic and the big differentiator (区别) is money. Why do people live in the city?
Mostly because that's where the money is. That's where the companies are. That's
where the economy is. That's where the infrastructure is. We're kind of obliged to live in
cities in order to work. Well, at least we were, then came the covid and worked from
home and telecommuting (远程办公) suddenly became mainstream. So it became
possible to actually live in the countryside while employed by some big city corporation.
So that's the best of all worlds, I suppose. The problem being in the countryside: you
don't have the option of the social life. The social life can only really be found in the
city. In the countryside, you've got the wilderness and the nature, and I'm happy with
that. So I think the answer to your question is, I'd be happy with either one.

What are the problems of living in cities?

First of all, everybody is going there because of the economic and other benefits, so
you have crowding. And that manifests (表明) itself in the form of traffic jams.
Sometimes in the form of supply chains. Sometimes in covid time, there were times
when certain foods were difficult to get a hold of. You have overcrowding, which is one
of the problems. That then leads to other problems, because you see, when people are
overcrowded in competition for economic resources, there'll be the winners and the
losers and the losers will resort to other actions to compensate for the fact that they're
not benefiting economically and that the main one is crime. So you're going to have
more crime in cities. Thankfully, in China, we have good social control, effective policing
and all of that. But still, one of the down sides of being in cities is you're more likely to
be assaulted (袭击) or robbed, or encounter some kind of criminal activity in the city. I
suppose commuting also could be a problem. Even though the city's concentrated,
getting around the city can be very time-consuming because of traffic issues, because
of public transportation limitations. So that can be another problem of being in a city.
Just the inability to move around it easily.

Is it expensive to decorate a house or an apartment?

That depends. If you would like go taps in the bathroom, crystal chandelier in the
hallway and satin (绸缎) sheets on all the beds and crystal glass and expensive Italian
tile. It can be extremely expensive to decorate a house or apartment. Or if you do what
other people do, get some basic skills in painting, carpeting and tiling, you can decorate
it yourself quite inexpensively. So really, it's just like everything. How expensive is a
watch? You can get a plastic one for 10 RMB or you can spend 200,000 RMB on a
Rolex. It's as expensive as you wanted to be. That's my answer.

18、运动场所

A popular place for sports (e.g. a stadium) that you’ve been to

You should say:

Where it is
When you went there
What you did there
And explain how you felt about this place

This is a nice question for me, because I'm fortunate enough to have visited one of the
most famous sports stadiums in the world, and that is Old Trafford, the home of
Manchester United. Old Trafford is located in the city of Manchester. Actually Salford, I
think, but they saw one big city in the northwest of England. I went there when I was at
London University. It was organized for us by the college authorities. We went there as
a group and we were going to have a meal there and then watch a football game. And
that's exactly what happened. In Manchester, we parked outside the stadium and then
were led inside into the executive part of the football stadium. Because you see, the
stadium consists of three different parts, actually four, you could say. There's the
football field itself, which is in the center under the floodlights (强光灯). Around the
edges that there’re four sides of seating for the fans, and the home fans have got their
own particular area at the end. And then behind one of the banks of the seating is the
office bloc. You got all the executive suite above with nice offices and dining rooms and
special boxes where you can sit and watch the football. And then downstairs from
those, you've got the gymnasiums and all the training areas and so forth. And so we
were up there in the executive area, eating food, drinking, watching the game. It was
the most memorable experience I will never forget, my time at Old Trafford,
Manchester.

中文思路:
我在伦敦念大学的时候有幸在学校的组织下参观过曼联的主场(Old Trafford)。我们参
观了体育场 的不同区域(共四个)，在那里吃饭，并观看了比赛，真的是一次很难忘的
经历。
What are the benefits of sports for children?

There are many benefits of spores for children. First of all, the body. Let's start with the
individual. We're all responsible for our own bodies. For keeping them in the best
possible condition, so that we can have the longest and healthiest, most productive and
happiest lives. So this is the very first thing by learning sport, using muscles, exercising
the body, building stamina (耐力), building strength. You're preparing your body for a
long and healthy life. The other is the social aspect, because if you join a sports team or
club, you're sharing it with others. You have got the other teammates. You've got the
other club members. There are many benefits of this cooperation, such as teamwork,
team spirit, loyalty and also inspiration, encouragement of each other, fellow feeling. All
of these positive, shared emotions can be derived from sporting activities among young
people. So there are very, very many benefits.

How important are public sports venues?

That's a very interesting question. When I went to Old Trafford to see Manchester,
United, it was quite clear when you go to these English cities like Liverpool and
Manchester, where football is so important, it's like a religion for them, and you can
really feel from just a roar of the voices in the crowd and the sheer number of people
who flood into the venue. This is an important cultural phenomenon (文化现象) that
holds people together that gives cities the character that makes culture. I think sports
venues are part of that. Not the only part, I think music venues are very important, too. I
think cultural venues, museums, art galleries are extremely important. Political venues,
old buildings, the Houses of Parliament in London, the capital in Washington DC or
whatever. Government buildings are very important, because they embody (体现) the
culture of the city. So I would say sports venues are extremely important.

What do you think of companies donating money for sports facilities?

What do I think of companies donating money? I think that sounds wonderful because
what companies normally do is suck money out of the economy for their own
shareholders and to make their own directors and officers rich and giving nothing away
to anyone. I think companies donating anything is a wonderful idea and especially
donating money for sports facilities, which do not obviously seem like a profitable
center for these companies. So in other words, the donations are much more genuine
(真诚的) when they're not expecting anything in return, which they cannot expect from
a sports center. So I think it's a wonderful thing. Companies show social responsibility,
caring about the health of the community, caring about the children and the children's
health and also children's growth opportunities. I think it's a wonderful thing.
19、向游客推荐本国旅游地
A place in your country or part of your country that you would like to recommend
to visitors/travelers

You should say:

What it is
Where it is
What people can do there
And explain why you would like to recommend it to visitors/travelers

I'm not from Nanjing. I'm only a student there, but I would certainly say that is the city I
would like to recommend to visitors or travelers in China -- Nanjing, the ancient capital,
not ancient, but a capital of China, both in the Ming dynasty and also during the
republican (共和国的) period, and I believe before that as well. So, frequently a capital
of China located on the Yangtze River about 300 kilometers inland from Shanghai and
with mountains surrounding it. It's kind of a gorge (峡谷) really, on a gorge, where the
Yangtze River sweeps up in a northerly (向北的) direction from Anhui and then hits the
gorges near Nanjing, and swings to the east, and then out in a straight line almost
towards the ocean. It's a beautiful location, as I say, with mountains, lakes and rivers.
What people can do there is learn a lot about the history of China, because Nanjing was
the capital during the republican period. In addition to that, just the environment which
is littered with (布满，到处都是) monuments to the past, as well as beautiful landscape
and wildlife. It's just a really beautiful city, rich in history, culture and tradition. I would
thoroughly recommend it to visitors.

中文思路: 我在南京学习，那里曾是明朝和民国首府，立于长江边上的峡谷中，有丰富
的历史文化、山湖和动植 物资源。南京还是一座非美丽的城市，有丰富的文化传统，
我一定会向游客们推荐来南京旅游。

Is it important to take photos while traveling?

I think so, yes. It's so easy now as well because of the mobile phones. Some of them
have really excellent cameras built in. It's so easy to carry in your pocket, no
requirement for expensive, bulky (庞大而占地方的), extra equipment. What happens
when you look at a picture is it triggers the memories. It's like a peg (挂物 钉) on which
to hang your memories. If you have a picture, even a few, it doesn't have to be a large
amount of photographic records, but if you have a few pictures, it really enables you to
preserve the memory of an experience. The pictures worth 1,000 words. I'm not the sort
of person who goes for selfies, but landscapes, buildings, wildlife, moments as it were. I
think it's important to capture those if you can while traveling, and nowadays it's easier
than ever with mobile phones.

Can you trust other people's travel journals on the internet?

Yes, I trust. Well, that seems a strange question. Actually, I have a friend who is purely
that, a travel author who publishes on the internet. He can live wherever he wants to
live. He takes commissions to go to places and write it up. Of course, why wouldn't I
trust it? But the thing is this. One person's experience is not the same as another's.
While it's interesting to read about his experience, for example, his experiences in a
certain country, I wouldn't assume that that is a comprehensive definition of what
happens in that country. He has his experience. You could have yours. I might have
mine, and all three could be very different. I think it's interesting to read, write up on the
internet. I really quite enjoy travelling, writing, travel journalism, if you like, or travelogue
videos. But trust? It's not a question of trust. They have their experiences. I expect to
have mine and I don't expect them to be necessarily the same.

What factors affect the way people feel about travel?

I think geographic risk is one. I'm thinking now about the covid pandemic that we've
been dealing with over the past few years. It certainly changed the way I think about
travel to the extent that I kind of gave up on expecting to travel during the height of the
pandemic. I thought that situation might be indefinite. I couldn't see any end to it. That
fact, how governments react to geopolitical events, whether they will let you in with
certification, whether they will let you in without certification, with this visa, with that
visa, whether this quarantine, whether this expenses, whether there's this kind of
certification or that, affects how I feel about travel. I don't know about other people.
Second to that is expense. It's all very well-known we have an affluent class building up
in China. For them $1,000 or $10,000 for the wealthy, there may not be very much
difference. For most people, though, when it comes to purchasing a plane ticket, there's
a big difference between $1,000 and $10,000. And so, definitely costs and expense
make a huge difference. It's the same when a certain country's currency becomes
cheap, it attracts a lot of tourists because everything becomes cheaper with a cheaper
currency. And so, their currency can buy more, more dinners, more gifts, more tours,
and therefore that these economic factors play a very big part I think. I would say those
two things. Risk and economics are the two major factors.

20、喜欢的节目

A program you like to watch

You should say:

What it is
What it is about
Who you watch it with
And explain why you like to watch it

One of my favorite TV programs in recent months and years has been Running Man.
This is very popular among young people in China nowadays, because it brings
together the elements of fun and celebrity and good-looking young people. And what
it is. It's a kind of a game show where celebrities are invited to take part in various types
of activities: little competitions, sort of hide-and-seek hunts, and various fun activities
to entertain the audience. It's great because we like to see, as I say, the stars of
entertainment, making fools themselves, which is really what the shows all about.
Because it brings us closer to them, shows them in a human light. And also, of course,
it's somehow even more liberating to see rich, successful, prestigious (有 名气的)
people being laughed at, it somehow makes us all feel better about ourselves. I tend to
watch this with groups of friends or with the family. It's often playing in the common
areas at the dorm. It's nice to go there and watch TV and make funny comments as we
are watching. That's something that we like to do. The thing is it keeps you in touch
with the currents of fashion, style, entertainment and who's popular, as well as being
relaxing and humorous and almost a way to decompress (减压), amid the pressures of
study and work and everything else in our modern society.

中文思路:
近期我最喜欢的电视节目是 Running Man。他是一个以各种游戏、竞赛组成的节目，
受邀者都是当红 的明星。你可以看到明星们接地气、搞笑的一面，我经常跟我朋友或
家人一起边看边讨论，真的非常 减压。

What are the most popular TV program types in your country?

In China, the TV is managed by the government, and so there are lots of channels
having to do with the news or defense issues, current affairs, geopolitics (地缘政治学),
things like that. People in China traditionally inward looking are starting to take more of
an interest in the outside world, especially in the current geopolitical environment,
where the sort of financial collapse of the west is creating new opportunities for the
east. I think everybody is very eager to see which way that's all going and where it
might lead for China in the future.

Do people in your country like to watch foreign TV programs?

They used to, I would say that the period from, shall we say, like ping pong diplomacy,
when was that? 1970s? Deng Xiaoping, until quite recently, until Donald Trump's
presidency from that, during that period, it was a kind of golden age of opening up.
And in fact, we use this word to reflect that China opened its doors to the outside world
for the sake of globalization, for the sake of global prosperity, for the sake of
interpersonal understanding around the world. For that period, shall we say that sort of,
50-year period? Foreign culture was quite welcomed in China. Chinese people took a
more positive view of foreign entertainment and foreign stereotypes (洋八股) in
general, because of globalization. But the event of the last few years, unfortunately,
have sort of put that process into reverse gear. Now, with the rise intentions among
various communities and blocks around the world, I would say that perhaps the taste
for an entertainment is declining. I think the best example would be Hollywood movies.
We enjoy because they're spectacular, expensively produced and sort of heroic (英雄的)
in many ways. However, we're coming to understand that these are actually can a
propaganda exercises projecting the image of America around the world. An image
which is not necessarily honest and which is not necessarily good. Because of this, I
think the taste of the Chinese people towards foreign and especially American
entertainment, maybe cooling somewhat in the present climate.

What are the benefits of using TV and video in class?

Let's go back to an old saying in English: “A picture is worth 1,000 words”. If teachers
are teaching younger age groups, it's much easier in many ways to communicate
through visuals than through language. Since children are accustomed to (习惯于)
watching things like cartoons on TV, they're instantly attracted by these kind of fluffy,
soft, approachable images of cartoon characters. If that can be used in the classroom,
then this will obviously draw the attention of the students. There'll be a higher chance
of some actual knowledge being exchanged, simply because the children will be
interested in looking at a fluffy squirrel talking about science, much more than they
would be interested in looking at a bald-headed middle-aged man, talking about
science, if you know what I mean. The Information can be packaged more dynamically,
more appealingly, more colorfully and so forth by using multimedia. Therefore, I think
it’s a very good idea for teachers who have the energy to do so to exploit power of TV
and video in the classroom.

21、让你自豪的照片

A photo you took that you are proud of

You should say:

When you took it
Where you took it
What is in this photo
And explain why you are proud of it
Let me begin by saying that I am not really a photographer. I admire the skill in other
people, but I do not consider myself a highly competent photographer. However, I am
interested in wild animals and I like to observe them in the wild, and also sometimes in
zoos. I went through a stage in my life where I would go to zoos with a camera and
take pictures or rather try to take pictures, which showed the animals as if they were in
the wild as if they were not in the zoo. My aim in taking those pictures was to try to get
a wild natural look for the setting where the animal is photographed. I had a few
successes. There was one of a South American jaguar. This is a big cat like a leopard. I
managed to get a picture of it coming through some reeds or some bushes beside the
river. Actually, the river was just the water inside its cage, but it looks as if the animal is
actually bursting through the undergrowth on the riverbank on part of its hunt. I was
quite proud of that picture. Actually while I'm on the subject, there's another one as
well. In Australia, they have some very, very fierce (凶猛的), poisonous (有剧毒的)
snakes. I went to the zoo in Sydney and I wanted to take a picture of the world's most
poisonous snake, wish they had there. And again, I managed to get a shot of it in the
sand, looking as though it was actually in the Queensland Desert and not in Sydney
Zoo. So those are a couple of pictures that I'm relatively proud of.

中文思路: 我不是摄影师，但出于对野生动物的喜好，我喜欢去动物园对它们进行拍
摄。我会仔细选景，并会使 我拍出来的动物仿佛生活在野外，而不是在动物园里。比
如在狩猎的猎豹，以及在沙漠中的凶猛毒蛇。 我对于我拍的照片感到很满意且自豪。

Why do some people like to record important things with photos?

There is the old saying, isn't there? A picture is worth 1,000 words. It can act, it’s almost
like a diary in a way. Especially nowadays, with the smartphone, we tend to pull out the
phone very easily. There's no sort of palaver (交涉), there's no messing around. There’re
no complications like they used to be with cameras, especially in the days of film and so
forth. It's very, very easy just to whip out (拿出) a modern mobile phone and take a
picture of anything. And that saves you from writing it down. It saves you from making
a diary entry and you don't need to do anything with it. It'll stay in your gallery. It's
there with the date right on it, too, to remind you of things that happened. So it's very
clear that especially now with the smartphone recording all kinds of information,
especially special occasions like parties or travel or time spent with a close friend or
someone special. It's only natural that we would have the mobile phone available to
make a record of that. So I think probably the main reason is for memories’ sake. To
memorize the occasion, the event and look back on it later.

What can people learn from historical photographs?

A great deal. Let's think here. For example, in the bank where I go, in each branch,
wherever the branch may be, they have historical photographs of what the street
looked like, where the bank now stands 100 years ago. That's very interesting because it
shows you all kinds of things about how societies changed, how clothing,
transportation, architecture, logistics delivery, all that good stuff. It really just gives you a
good view of how things change. What we might call a dire (极严重的) chronic (反复出
现的) perspective. Seeing things in two time-scales, which gives added depth, added
focus, and added understanding to where our community came from, how our
community grew, and the material backdrop to the society that we live in today.

Which is better, taking photographs or keeping a diary?

That's quite interesting. That question has come up because earlier and I compared
taking pictures to keeping a diary. So, we come back to the simple question of
instrumentality, how easy it is to use? Of course, modern technology is designed for
ease of use. There it is, the mobile phone in your pocket. You pull it out, press a button,
and here's your high-resolution (高分辨率) zoom camera, just like that. Compared to
that, reaching into your backpack for a book, I know, don't forget a pencil or pen, and
then opening it at the right page, and then starting to reach for the words to explain
what you've just seen or done. There's a big difference in instrumentality between those
two things. And so what we're looking at in this modern world is the priority of
convenience. Is it quick? Is it easy? Yes. Then get the camera out or I should say get the
phone out, turn on the camera and take the picture rather than fumbling (笨手笨脚地)
around for paper and pencil.

22、漂亮物品

An object that you think is beautiful

You should say:

What it is
Where you saw it
What it looks like
And explain why you think it is beautiful

I'm going to talk about something which may seem counter intuitive (违反直觉的) on
the subject of beauty. This is a thing that I saw when I was jogging with my girlfriend,
because I looked up and I saw a spider, which seemed to be hanging in midair. I
stopped and I said “look at this. It's beautiful.” My girlfriend said, “No, it's horrible. It's a
spider. They're frightening. They're ugly.” But you see, I have to disagree, because it's a
beautiful work of natural engineering and incorporating great beauty as well as great
sort of technical refinement (精粹), this eight-legged creature with eight eyes in its
head, and the ability to secrete (隐藏) silk or a silken thread, which will turn into a web
to catch its food. Isn't this a miracle of evolutionary engineering? Isn't it a wonder of
nature? It certainly is in my opinion. It's beautiful for its design, for its marvelous
capabilities. This animal, if it were the size of a human being, would have the strength of
the power of a high-speed train. It’s this fact, this miraculous (奇迹般的) natural
construction, this elegance of design, which I think is the beauty of the animal. And
these colors there as well, and shape and all of the rest of it. But somehow form and
function are fundamental components in judgments of beauty. It's a very interesting
topic.

中文思路: 我眼中的美可能是比较违反直觉的。有次我和我女朋友慢跑的时候看到一只
蜘蛛，我女朋友觉得它很 可怕很恶心。但是我觉得它可太美了，是物种进化的伟大产
物。是神奇的美。

What is beauty?

That's a very interesting question and I came across an academic recently. Actually,
somebody I knew and he's continuing his research in beauty in the biological sense.
Reading about his work has given me the ideas that I'm talking about to you now. The
beauty in the spider. Because my friend's research is on “What is beauty and what is it
that makes animals choose their mate, which then results in the direction of their
evolution” It is a very, very interesting subject. “Phylogeny” is the word. Obviously, there
are hidden criteria as to what makes beauty. Confucius often use the word “harmony”. I
think that is a component, like the spider in its amazing abilities. There's a harmony in
the economy of its size, and in the integration of its parts, there's a beautiful harmony
there. And the harmony in the disposition (性情) of the organs of a person's faces, for
example, determine whether we consider them ugly or beautiful. So there is some kind
and I guess that's what my friend would say in his research. There's some kind of
formula going on here that determines one of the parameters of what is acceptably
beautiful and what is not. When we come to the spider, we're reaching the sort of
borderline here. For my girlfriend, those angular ([生物] 有角的) legs, that bizarre (奇异
的) configuration with eight eyes that bulbous (球根的) behind. Those are intimidating,
scary looking things. But for my perspective, looking at the design, elegance, and
capability of it, it's beautiful. So there's obviously some kind of borderline of for
phylogeny where beauty ends and we have other things begin, a very interesting
question.

Do you think that the modern world produces more beautiful things than in the
past or not?

That’s an interesting question. I went to an exhibition, an art exhibition in London when

I was studying about architecture in London. Now, London is a very old city dates back
1,000 years and a lot of the buildings are 500 years old. And then in the 20th century,
about 100 years ago, they started knocking down all these old buildings, all these
beautiful old marble buildings, white marble buildings. They started knocking them
down and building new buildings out of brick and concrete, and they said it was
beautiful. But people said, “No, it's not beautiful, it's ugly.” And the word that they gave
the architecture was brutal (凶残的). Brutal, this means cruel. It was cruel to destroy the
old buildings and replace them with these brick and concrete monstrosity (可怕的东西).
But the architects who built those brutal structures said they were beautiful. Okay, so
now it's a matter of opinion. I personally think that the older architecture is much more
beautiful than the modern brutal stuff. But you see nowadays we have a generation of
people who think that modern is good, that modern is beautiful, that high tech is
beauty. Just like I think that to spider, the evolutionary elegance is beauty. Some people
think that the technological elegance is beauty. So, it's a matter of opinion. But you ask
me for my opinion, and I think the modern world does not produce more beautiful
things than in the past.

What outstanding scenic spots are there in your country?

China is a very big country. And unfortunately, I haven't traveled very much to know
about all of the scenic spots. I think that in the west of China, in the Gobi Desert (戈壁
滩), the Taklimakan Desert (塔克拉玛干沙 漠) the Himalayan Mountains, or even the
tropical forests of Yunnan. There must be some beautiful places, but I haven't seen
them. So I can only speak about the beautiful places I’ve seen. And Huangshan stands
out as being the outstanding beauty spot of China, although I did see Guilin many years
ago, and that's quite nice down there, too. Qingdao is quite pretty. The whole sort of
Shandong peninsula is hilly, and it has got a lot of sort of nice seaside. That's quite
pretty too. And these are examples of beauty sports. Now, I have to say that the
majority of the Chinese population is concentrated here in the east and the southeast,
which is flat and riverine (河边的). So there isn't a lot of scenic beauty in the eastern
southeast. There’s a lot of industry and still has some pollution, not too much scenic
beauty. I think you have to travel far the west, up the Yangtze River into western China
to see the real beauty spots of our country.

23、分享

Something you had to share with others

You should say:

What it was
Who you shared it with
Why you had to share it with others And explain how you felt about it

The most outstanding episode that comes to mind in terms of sharing with others is the
time when my grandfather in Taiwan wanted to make a gift of money to myself and my
two cousins. The thing is, my grandfather was a very traditionalist (传统主义者的)
person and the money was in cash. It had to be brought to China from Taiwan. I was
the one who was designated (指定的) to make the journey. This was a big responsibility
and everybody was, I was certainly concerned about this, but the thing is that it was a
surprise for my two cousins. This was a very wonderful moment at the moment when I
actually presented the money to my two cousins. The reason was to have to share the
money equally among the three of us from our grandfather. But as I say, as the eldest
of the three, I was the one who actually got the job of bringing it in and sharing it out. It
was wonderful because my sister, my cousin, female cousin, that is, I call her my sister,
which is my female cousin, was planning her marriage at the time. So, this cash from
grandfather in Taiwan was really welcome addition to her financial situation. My other
cousin was just about to go on study overseas. So, he was really delighted (高兴的) to
have this extra money coming in. It's a wonderful feeling, and actually I still have the
photographs and the videos of that moment when we actually shared this package of
generosity (慷慨) from our grandfather over there in Taipei.

中文思路: 我在台湾的祖父想赠予我和我的两个表兄妹一些现金。由于我是最大的孩
子，我被指派去找祖父取钱。 这是个很大的责任，我不仅要安全把钱带回来，还要公
平的分享出来。我的两个表兄妹都很高兴，我 还保留着当时的照片和录像。

Does sharing come naturally do you think?

No, I'm afraid not. I'm a biologist and I observe this in many animals. If you look at dogs
for example, they have to hunt cooperatively, but they don't share cooperatively in the
wild. The biggest ones eat most of the food and the other ones are lucky if they get
any. Studying the birds for example, and we look at the birds of prey (猛禽), the
inequality begins in the nest where the bigger babies kill the smaller ones and ending
up usually with just one left. This is a matter of sharing, it's a matter of eating most of
the food. They need most of the food for strength and survival. So naturally speaking, in
terms of evolutionary biology (进化生物学), in my humble opinion, sharing certainly
does not come naturally. I mean, it's more a function of human civilization and culture, I
would say, in the sense that in our primitive (原始的) ancestors, sharing became
necessary as a matter of survival against hostile (敌对的) rivals or against wild animals
or things like this. "United we stand, divided we fall (团结则存，分裂则亡)", is the
concept behind it. So, in order to unite, people have to agree to share. That's where it
comes from. It really comes from what you might call civilization in the in the first
instance, I think.
Do small children ever have difficulty sharing things and why?

Definitely. Humans are also animals, and we can see from children that sharing is not
natural. Their behavior depends very much on the environment specifically, the role
models of their parents. If they are not taught to share, it will not come naturally. If
again, I refer to the animal kingdom, a puppy, when families decide to own a pet and
buy a puppy, sometimes it has to be taught not to try to bite them when they bring it
food. Why? Because it's natural to compete for food in all species in the animal
kingdom. And even though we are blessed to be human beings, the fact is that we also
originate in the animal kingdom. So, unless children are taught otherwise and again,
back to the civilizational explanation, unless children are civilized in the home and
taught that unity and harmony requires sharing. Unless they're taught that, then they
won't learn it. They'll behave in a spontaneous (自发的) and natural way where the
fittest, the strongest take precedence (优先权) over the others.

How can parents teach their children to share?

I think the biggest factor here is socialization. You see, look, if it's parents and children
alone within the nuclear family (核心家庭), this is a bad example of sharing because
what the child experiences is both parents striving (奋斗), working and making efforts to
put food into the child's mouth. I'm going back to my biological model again here. The
child gets the idea that it is the center of the world and obviously there's really no need
to share things because it's the parents, everybody else's job to deliver food. So, the
best way children can be taught to share, or the best way parents can teach their
children to share is to socialize them, to put them with peers as early as possible. And
during that process to demonstrate how sharing benefits them in terms of playing
games together, having treats together, doing constructive activities together, like
early-stage teamwork. This has to be learned in a peer group. If a child is alone with
parents, it no matter what he said in words, it's not going to learn much about sharing.

24、喜欢看的电影

A movie you watched recently and would like to watch again

You should say:

What type of movie it was
What it was about
Where you watched it
And explain why you would like to watch it again
Yes, there's a movie I saw recently that I would certainly like to watch again, because it's
one of those rare films that has so much depth in all aspects that there's always
something new to discover. The film I'm talking about is a Chinese film Sejie, which
translates as "Lust Caution". It's an award-winning film by An Lee. It's a historical
espionage (间谍行为) drama., and the story is that there's a group of students at Hong
Kong University. Amazing how the past is echoed in the present, but the planning to
assassinate a leading agent and espionage boss of the Republican Chinese government
up in Shanghai. The idea is that the beautiful Tang Wei, the Chinese actress is going to
seduce (引诱) this agent, powerful, dangerous man. However, through their passion,
she falls in love with him. When the time comes for her gang to surprise him and
assassinate him, she whispers, “Run” and helps him to save his life, which costs her life
and the lives of all of her co-conspirators (同谋者). This is a very powerful film and also
very interesting. If you're curious about the republican period, pre-World War Two era
in China as I am.

中文思路: 我十分推荐李安导演的《色戒》，他是讲在抗日战争时期的上海，美丽的女
大学生利用美色接近一位 有权势的汉奸意图行刺，但女大学生发现自己动真情，于是
通风报信让他逃过一劫，最终导致自己以 及同伴被赶尽杀绝的故事。

Where do people normally watch movies nowadays?

I would say nowadays the majority at home. In the West, companies like Netflix have
created a vast industry of online-service-only of films and series. The same applies in
China through various websites. You can access such a wide variety of content. People
buy the very large wide screen TVs, some of these TVs are almost as large as wall. You
can project them out of the wall, you can have your home cinema. You can project
movies onto the wall of your apartment. So why go to the movies? Why stand in line?
Why jostle (推挤) with others? Why listen to the noise of people eating popcorn when
you can have peace and quiet. Absolutely, most people watch movies at home now and
myself included.

What are the differences between watching movies at home and in a cinema?

Let's list then. The cinema let's list the advantages first of all of the cinema. The
occasion, the sense of occasion, it's an evening out, even more sophisticated (见多识广
的) ones now have perhaps a coffee bar or even a cocktail bar attached to them, even a
restaurant. So, there's the sense of occasion is nice with the cinema visit. The big screen,
absolutely, surrounding you. They even have this kind of planetarium (天文馆) style
movie theaters where the film went screen literally wraps around you., this is nice. And
all the seats move, you can have that, and the sound systems are tremendous (极好的).
Again, the combination of a cinema sound system in a moving seat is wonderful.
However, in order to get to that, you've got the cost, you got the cost and the problem
of traveling to the cinema. There may be the queuing situation. Among the other
people, there may be antisocial behavior of noise, talking, telephones, eating food. It
may be overcrowded. You may have that problem. There're many things that can go
wrong in the cinema, which are not a problem at home. While at home, you don't have
the big screen or you may have a big screen. You can project on the wall, but you don't
have this all-around screen or the high technology graphics. And you don't have the
high technology sound system or you might have a good one though. You can get
pretty close if you're really keen. In fact, some people do have their home theaters on
the hold, even with a normal laptop, you've got your comfort, you've got the lack of
cost, you've got all the things you need around you. So that's why I opt for the home
solution for the most part.

Why are fewer people going to the cinema these days?

The cinemas are going out of business. I remember reading somewhere that in western
countries at least, cinemas are closing down. Because you see, it's the Hollywood film
industry, isn't it? that driven the cinema industry, if you like, the part of the same thing. I
don't know about other people, but from my perspective, the Hollywood film industry is
going downhill. Isn't it quite obvious nowadays that all it is a broadcasting propaganda
(鼓吹) division for the American military and the American government? So why would
anybody want to watch American films anymore? These American films not being
produced, except for this to the Marvel man, comic action type things. Who wants to go
there? Children can watch those things on their phones eventually. So. I'm not surprised
that the cinemas are closing down again, as I said, is it worth it? Certainly not worth it to
go to see Hollywood cartoons on American propaganda. And what else is there? If you
want to watch anything good, you can have to watch it on your computer.

25、有趣小说/故事

A story or novel you have read that you found interesting

You should say:

When you read it
What the story or novel was about Who wrote it
And explain why it was interesting

One of the books I'd like to talk about is the very, very famous “Dream of the Red
Mansion” by Cao Xueqing, which is one of the great literary works of Chinese culture. I
read it when I was a schoolboy, but I've read it repeatedly since then, because of the
great impression it made on me. Not only that, but the beauty of the book is the way
that it encapsulates (简要描述) Chinese history. It was written at the end of the Ming
dynasty about 300 years ago. It describes basically the rise and the fall of a family,
which is a microcosm (微观世界), a miniature (微型的) version of the dynasty itself.
Remember that the Ming dynasty is coming to its end at that time. But still, the father
rules the family like a powerful emperor. And yet the writer deals most sensitively with
the female characters: female friends, female relatives, and servants are delicately (微妙
地) portrayed (描写) in the book. As a certain religious themes and philosophical
questions, because the author is very interested in Confucius and Taoism (道教), but
also literary illusions to the writings of the period the Ming plays and other Ming novels.
Also, poetry from earlier periods is alluded (影 射) to in the novel. So, in many ways, it
encapsulates Chinese literature really or certainly embodies and exemplifies (是......的典
范). It even has its own subject, redism (红学家). Redism is a form of academic study
dedicated to this book.

中文思路: 曹雪芹的《红楼梦》是让我留下深刻印象的一本书。他描述的是明末时期一
个大家族的兴衰史，而这 个家族本身就是那个朝代的一个缩影，作者对女性角色的描
述处理十分的精妙，是中国文学的一个经 典作品。

Do you prefer to read e-books or paper books?

I actually prefer to read paper books, call me old fashioned, but I find they are easier to,
not easier, the instrumentality is better, more satisfying, more controllable somehow.
You just remembering where you were. It's easier with a paper book and you can make
notes in the margin in certain cases if you want to. There's something satisfying about
holding the paper book in your hand. But e-books, if we're talking about novels or
things like this, single volume books. Yeah, I do prefer to read them in paper form, but
you see, I spend most of my reading online. This is not book reading, it's webpage
reading, which is somewhat different. So, I do most of my reading on webpages, but if it
comes to books, I prefer paper books over e-books. I've never really adapted to the e-
book reader culture, the small black and white pad for reading e-books, I've never
really gone in that direction.

Why are mystery novels so popular nowadays?

It becomes down to the concept of escapism (逃避主义). The thing about novels is they
are good for escapism. In a 300-page literary experience, you, the reader immerse (使
沉浸于) yourself in an imaginary world, which takes you away from the realities of the
present one, the real one. Now, since you are going to be taken away from reality, why
not add more emotions and sensations (感觉)? Like titillation (愉快), fear and horror, or
shock for its own sake. And that's what thrillers, mysteries. That's what they provide. A
little bit of shock, a little bit of horror, a little bit of surprise. They provide a little bit of
grit (勇气) for this escapist world that novels and stories create, so that the commuters
sitting on the metro going to work in the morning can escape for 20 minutes from the
harsh realities of life and enter an imaginary world, a world full of mystery, a world full
of fear, full of horror, imagination, something richer than the bland (平淡的) day to day
experience.

What kind of novels are suitable for film adaptation?

That's a very interesting question, simply because there have been occasions when I've
seen films which I've really enjoyed and wanted to read the book and found the book
to be very disappointing and very different. So, it kind of makes this a difficult question
to answer really. The fact that in many cases, films of the novel are quite different from
the novel itself. But anyway, in principle, you would assume that the best kind of novel
for film adaptation would be one that has a traditional or classical dramatic structure. In
other words, a beginning and an end and ideally acts breaking down the action into
phases. If the novel was broken down, say, into five stages, five acts or three stages,
three acts, this would be easy then to adapt to the cinematic format, which allows you
basically something like 30 minutes per act, which is about the same as seeing the play
in the theater. I would say that basically, novels with a more dramatic as in classical
drama structure would be easier to adapt and fulfill.

26、学到的重要事情

An important thing you learned (not at school or college)

You should say:

What it was
When you learned it
How you learned it
And explain why it was important

I would like to talk about a thing I learned outside formal education, which I think is very
important and very useful. That is how to maintain my car. I learned this from my
cousin, my cousin who is slightly older than me, and he managed to get a car before
me. And actually, he didn't go to university. He went to a sort of vocational college (职
业学院) and learned about car mechanics. So he's very, very expert in these areas. From
my cousin, I learned all the basics about how to keep the car running well, from
something as simple as the tires. Keeping the right amount of tread. Keeping the right
amount of air. Keeping the wheels properly balanced. So that they wear evenly. Then
the engine. Making sure that all the liquids are properly topped up. The oil to keep the
engine lubricated. The water to keep the engine cool. The detergent (使清洁的) water
to make sure the windows, the windshields, front and rear are clear and clean. And then
the fuel system. Making sure you get the right grade of fuel from the right place.
Making sure that the carburettor ([车辆] 汽 化器) is in good condition to inject the fuel
into the engine of the air filters are refreshed and renewed, not allowed to get blocked
up with particles, so that the air going into the engine is clear. All of these things I learn
from my cousin. And so now, my car runs very well and I don't need to spend money
on garage maintenance.

中文思路: 我曾在学校之外的地方学习到很重要的技能，是汽车维护。我跟我堂弟学
的，他在职业学院里学汽车 维修，是这方面的专家。我跟他从基础开始，学习如何保
养轮胎、引擎、燃油系统等等。这是非常有 用的，我现在甚至不需要把车送去专门维
护。

What do children learn from their parents?

That's a very big question. You could almost say most things, but actually that's not the
case because children do learn a lot also from school, from teachers, from their peers,
from their peers’ families, from the community, at large from the media. So you don't
learn everything from your parents, but obviously we learn some important things, like
good manners for example. You can tell people who come from good families with
good parents because they behave in a well-regulated, respectful manner. You can see
also people who come from families with different parents, with arrogance parents, with
antisocial parents or with parents with issues, because the children themselves carry the
baggage with them. So children learn a lot from their parents and it may be good or it
may be bad. Luckily, in China, our community is quite stable and Confucian values
guide us very clearly so that we all know how parents should behave. I have to say that
there's more chance of families being responsible educators of their children in China.
Then there might be in some other countries, like the western countries where I’ve
traveled, which are influenced by more kinds of strange cultural attitudes nowadays.
And so children can get very damaged by their parents in those countries. I think we are
fortunate in China in the Confucian values and Confucian philosophy tend to guide
families in the right direction.

Is it necessary for adults to learn new things?

Well, there is a school of thought (学派，思想派别) that goes under the heading of
lifelong learning, isn't there? I would tend to subscribe to that concept myself. I think
that learning is indeed a lifelong process. There is absolutely no need to stop learning.
There's no need to stop studying. One can be enrolled in higher education until the
later years of one's life and still benefit from the knowledge in the education and still be
able to pass it on somehow to the community. My answer to your question is:I believe
in lifelong learning, and I think that the lack of lifelong learning leads to stultification (使
显得愚笨) where people stop progressing, stop developing mentally, boredom,
disillusionment (幻灭), negativity, and a whole lot of negative outcomes from not
growing naturally, from not developing naturally. The natural course is to grow and
develop. Look around you throughout nature. This is what happens to all living things.
They grow and they mature throughout their life cycle. It's important to apply that
philosophy to learning and knowledge.

How can people learn new things?

It's all in the mind, I think. You see that we have phrases like open-minded and closed-
minded. We have a phrase like a lively and inquiring mind. Let's break these things
down. Closed-minded (思想保守的) does not sound like a very positive thing, where we
are not open to new ideas, new experiences, change in any form, understanding new
ideas, where a closed-minded person is not interested in any of that. Obviously, it’s
negative from the start, because it's non-productive, it's non-developmental, there's no
growth. A closed mind is a harmful thing. Open mind on the other hand, which we think
of is lively and inquiring. This is more organic, natural and lively. Release a little puppy
or something in the garden. What will they do? They'll run around. They'll sniff at things.
They'll look at everything. They'll try to piece together and understanding of this
environment and what's there as part of their development, as a creature in this part of
their understanding of the world. I do not see a fundamental difference between young
people exploring the world of knowledge, the world of experience. I don't see a great
deal of difference between that and a young puppy investigating a garden, the scents,
the odors (气味), the species, the vegetation. It's a natural thing to want to learn about
your environment. And how can people learn? By entering the environment with an
open mind. Looking at things, seeking understanding and open mind is the key.